A Study Has Found: You, too, can train yourself to be a pickup artist

The art of flirtation doesn’t have to be a natural-born gift — a new study proves it can be learned.

According to Buzzfeed, the study was conducted by Andreas Baranowksi, a PhD student at Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany who was itching to get to the bottom of this age-old enigma. 17 men and 23 women went through about six hours of training on how to better pick-up potential mates by learning “evolutionary psychology principles” — what men and women find attractive about each other.

Men were told to use indirect approaches by opening a conversation with a question about something like music rather than a compliment about a woman’s appearance. They were also told to use their physical stature to indicate a high social status by making sweeping hand gestures and and touching others “non-reciprocally” (but this could get weird if you’re not good at it).

Women were told to send men clear signals that they were open to being approached, like smiling… over and over again. In fact, it could take up to 12 times for a man to finally get it (Seriously?).

Both genders were told to touch their love interest slightly in conversation. Then they were sent out to battle. Did the training pay off? Yes, both men and women actually doubled their typical success rates.

Men who usually got 1.07 phone numbers from women per hour on average were able to snag to 3.67 numbers. Women were offered drinks 3.1 times compared to their usual rate of 1.65 cocktail.

See? There is hope for you!