Guitars Make Men Sexier

There's now evidence to support what many women have long accepted as fact: There's something sexy about a man with a guitar. A French study published in the journal Psychology of Music has found that a guy with a pretty face and a guitar case is much more likely to score a woman's phone number than, say, a guy with a sports bag or nothing at all. That pairs with an Israeli study that found that female students were much more likely to accept Facebook friendship requests from a male stranger pictured with a guitar than one without.

In the first study, described in the Pacific Standard, a 20-year-old male approached 300 young women, introduced himself, told the woman she was pretty, and asked for her number. Some 31% of women gave their digits when he carried a guitar case—compared to 14% when he held nothing, and 9% with the sports bag. The French researchers suggest music is linked with "physical and intellectual abilities" and implies a work ethic, which might be perceived as good qualities in a mate. But there's an interesting coda: The Israelis later replicated their study among male students, and found no difference if the female was pictured with a guitar or not. (More guitar stories.)