--- title: Attractiveness: Men, Women and Responsiveness description: A new study shows that men think women who are aware of their feelings are attractive, but it didn't necessarily work the other way around canonical: https://time.com/3048579/sigh-men-think-women-who-listen-to-them-are-sexier/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-29T20:20:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:43.956Z og:title: Attractiveness: Men, Women and Responsiveness og:description: A new study shows that men think women who are aware of their feelings are attractive, but it didn't necessarily work the other way around og:url: https://time.com/3048579/sigh-men-think-women-who-listen-to-them-are-sexier/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc566c6e1512b084a/69869db13bc9997db01a4baf/165550303.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5200 og:image:height: 2925 og:image:alt: 165550303 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Attractiveness: Men, Women and Responsiveness twitter:description: A new study shows that men think women who are aware of their feelings are attractive, but it didn't necessarily work the other way around twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc566c6e1512b084a/69869db13bc9997db01a4baf/165550303.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sigh: Men Think Women Who Listen to Them Are Sexier > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Jul 29, 2014 8:20 PM UTC  Listening woman Listening woman Image Source RF/Wonwoo Lee—Getty Images/Image Source  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Jul 29, 2014 8:20 PM UTC Dusty Springfield was right all those years ago when she said the best way to a man’s heart was to “show him that you care.” A new study shows that men are more sexually attracted to “responsive” women who tend to their needs, but the same can’t be said about what attracts women to men. The study, published in the _Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin_, found that after just meeting, men were more likely to be sexually attracted to a woman who was “responsive,” which meant “aware of what I’m thinking and feeling” or “listening to me.” Men perceived responsive women as more feminine, and therefore more sexually attractive. Dr. Gurit Birnbaum, one of the authors of the study, said that “responsiveness” could also indicate which women would be viewed as long-term partners vs. short term hookups. “A responsive partner may be perceived as a warm and caring and therefore a desirable long-term partner,” she said in an email. Unsurprisingly, the female attitude towards male “responsiveness” was more complicated. On the one hand, some women saw responsiveness as an indication that the man would be a desirable mate, while others suspiciously viewed it as a ploy to manipulate them into sex. Still others thought that “responsiveness” was un-masculine, and therefore not sexy. So there might be actually some science behind the whole “nice guys finish last” thing. 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