Flowers Really Can Make Love Bloom

Trying to woo her? It's scientifically proven that flowers will make the job an easier one, reports the Telegraph. Psychologists in France conducted a study in which five attractive young men approached 600 women on the street; each introduced himself, complimented her looks, and asked for the lady's phone number so he could invite her out for a drink. Turns out men were far likelier to get a woman's number when the conversation occurred in front of a florist (about a one-in-four rate of success) as opposed to a shoe shop (one in 10) or cake shop (one in seven).

"The results confirm the effect of exposure to flowers on receptivity to romantic request," wrote the researchers. A psych expert calls the findings "consistent with the phenomenon known as behavioral priming. That is where 'cues' in your environment can lead you to behave in ways that are consistent with that environment." So just being near a place tied to romance "could have primed people to behave in a way that is more receptive to the researcher’s advances," he says. (More flowers stories.)