Flower Power: The Impact of Flowers on Dating

Flowers traditionally have a lot of common associations with romance: picking the petals off wondering if he loves you or not, exchanging corsages and boutonnieres for prom, or their huge role in weddings.  But in the beginning of new relationships, one of the most common questions I’ve seen men ask is “Should I bring my date flowers?”  In numerous online forums, including ours here at eHarmony, recommendations on whether or not to bring flowers seem to really depend on who you ask.

What kind of effects can flowers really have on dating and romantic relationships?  A recent study by Nicolas Guéguen (2011) investigated the association between flowers and the effect on human romantic behavior.  Namely the author was interested in how they can alter women’s attractiveness ratings for men and their dating behavior.  In a series of studies, women were shown into a room and asked to watch a video with a young man describing his food habits.  In the first study, the room would either have three vases of mixed flowers which included roses, French marigolds, and daisies around the room or none at all based on predetermined assignments to the different conditions.  After viewing the video, women were asked to rate the attractiveness of the man in the video.  In an extension of this, the second study added a male aide that was supposedly also participating in a separate room and would interact with the woman after her viewing the video, and would ask her for her phone number to ask her out on a date.  From these studies, the researchers were able to look at how the presence of flowers can affect attractiveness ratings and their willingness of dating behaviors.

The first study showed women in the flowered room rated the young man in the video significantly more physically attractive, sexually attractive, and more willing to date him than those without flowers in the room.  The second study also showed that women who had viewed the video in the flowered room were more likely to accept the aide’s offer and give him their phone number.  In the flowerless condition, only half of the women accepted the aide’s offer, whereas 81 percent of the women in the flowered room gave the aide their number.

These results show a flower’s capability of activating romance and can be helpful in dating in that exposure to flowers increased women’s willingness to go out on a date, as well as increased their attractiveness ratings of men.  The author offers a couple of explanations of why this effect is happening.  It could be due to a positive association with flowers that is learned throughout the lifetime.  Romantic situations in advertisements or movies are usually depicted with flowers.  This type of underlying association could be responsible for the increase in willingness to explore a new romantic venture.

The effect could also be explained by changes in mood.  There has been much research previously done on the association between flowers and mood.  For example, Haviland-Jones et al. (2005) found women who were given flowers smiled more and had higher humor scores than women who received fruit baskets, indicating flowers were mood enhancers.  Another study by Haviland-Jones et al. (2005) showed a man or woman who was given a flower in an elevator would start conversation more frequently and would stand closer to others over those who were given a pen.  Decreases in negative emotions were also shown in a study by Park and Mattson (2008) in that less anxiety, stress, and fatigue was seen in those exposed to flowers and plants.

So according to this line of research, men: you might want to bring flowers to your date.   But this brings different aspects into consideration: do you bring them on the first date or wait until the second date?  Do you send them after the first date and use them to ask them out again?  What kind of flowers should you bring?  Do you agree that flowers can have this much of a positive impact? Women, how do you feel when a date brings you flowers? Do you agree with the study and find men who bring you flowers more attractive?

Further Reading:

Guéguen, N. (2011). “Say it with flowers”: The effect of flowers on mating attractiveness and behavior Social Influence, 6 (2), 105-112 DOI: 10.1080/15534510.2011.561556

Haviland-Jones, J., Rosario, H. H., Wilson, P., & McGuire, T. R. (2005). An Environmental Approach to Positive Emotion: Flowers Evolutionary Psychology, 3, 104-132

Park, S. H., & Mattson, R. H. (2008). Effects of flowering and foliage plants in hospital rooms on patients recovering from abdominal surgery Hort Technology, 18 (4), 563-568