The Most Effective Pickup Line?

It may be, “I’m taken.”  The New Scientistreports today on a Journal of Experimental Social Psychologystudy finding that single heterosexual women prefer men who are identified as taken by a wide margin over men identified as single.  Single men were far less picky in their choices generally, but their preferences were not affected by whether or not a woman was single.  Big Think has enlisted several experts to weigh in on the mysteries of relationships. 

Elizabeth Gilbert settled down in the wake of her bestseller Eat, Pray, Love.  She delivered a memoir about her romance to be released in January, and gave Big Think a preview of the relationship tale. 

Last year, Rachel Resnik, author of Love Junkie, a memoir of her lifelong attraction to unsuitable men, told Big Think what kind of men attract love addicts like herself.  Meanwhile, for the mathematically inclined, Yale economist Barry Nalebuff discussed game theory’s applications to relationships.