THE LOOK OF LOVE?

By Dinesh Ramde | November 16, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

Jena Pincott reviews odd research into the science of attraction

“Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? Bodies, Behavior and Brains — The Science Behind Sex, Love & Attraction” by Jena Pincott: (Delacorte Press. 308 pages. $20)

Plenty of sex books claim to answer the questions we’re too afraid to ask. In “Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes?,” author Jena Pincott answers questions we might never have thought to ask.

Can you tell people’s sexual orientation by their smell? Why do guys think a woman is into them when she’s just being friendly? Why do you find your partner so amazing, even if no one else does?

Apparently, these are questions that occurred to scientists, because Pincott answers each of them by quoting research published on those very topics.

The result is a volume that’s easy to read, with explanations that are simple and amusing if somewhat repetitive. This book is likely to prompt conversations with friends that start with, “Hey, have you ever wondered why people ... ?”

Pincott has clearly done her homework. To answer her nearly 100 questions, she pored over scientific journals and simplified the language for a broader audience. Her target audience is apparently women. Men may tire of such sentences as, “The next time you’re in the middle of your menstrual cycle, take a close look in the mirror.”

But there’s still plenty of content that would appeal to both genders. Those topics include which subtle cues might lead to sexual attraction or suggest compatibility, and which nonsexual talents might hint at prowess in the bedroom.

Pincott answers each question in three to four pages, making the book easy to browse. In fact, it’s sometimes better to jump around between sections because a number of consecutive answers start to repeat after a while.

For example, the explanations in several sections can be summed up with variations of the same answer: because our prehistoric ancestors evolved that way for survival of the species.

Why do men love big breasts? Why do men lose their judgment and decision-making skills when looking at pretty women? Why do men give women fancy dinners and vacations instead of useful gifts? The questions might seem unrelated until the reader sees how similar the answers are.

In other cases, it’s not clear how well scientific theory relates to the real world.

One question asks, “Why might deep-voiced men have more babies?”

The answer is drawn from research into a Tanzanian tribe in which men with deeper voices fathered more kids, presumably because the extra testosterone that made their voices lower also gave them other physical characteristics that made them more attractive to women. They may have had better-shaped musculature, increased sex drives, improved sperm quality and so on, Pincott says.

That explanation might work in a remote hunter-gatherer village, but we live in a world where guys with high-pitched voices also have large families. Pincott acknowledges that in our culture, women also fall in love with guys because of completely different characteristics such as intelligence, creativity and loyalty, raising the question of how much practical relevance some of the information has to our lives.

But that’s not to diminish the entertainment and frequently educational value of this book. A cross between Cosmopolitan and Scientific American, Pincott’s book might not answer all your questions — but the questions it does answer make for an insightful and amusing read.