Attraction Explained: The Science of How We Form Relationships

How much does appearance matter in the formation of romantic relationships? Do nice guys always finish last? Does playing hard-to-get ever work? What really makes for a good chat-up line? When it comes to relationships, theres no shortage of advice from self-help experts, pick-up artists, and glossy magazines. But modern-day myths of attraction often have no basis in fact or worse are rooted in little more than misogyny. In ’Attraction Explained’, psychologist Viren Swami debunks these myths and draws on cutting-edge research to provide a ground-breaking and evidence-based account of relationship formation. At the core of this book is a very simple idea: there are no laws of attraction, no foolproof methods or strategies for getting someone to date you. But this isn’t to say that theres nothing to be gained from studying attraction. Based on science rather than self-help cliches, Attraction Explained looks at how factors such as geography, appearance, personality, and similarity affect who we fall for and why.

Viren Swami is Professor of Social Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK. He is an international expert on attraction and body image, and has written and edited several books on these topics. He is also the founder of Plug In Your Brain, a public engagement initiative to promote the wider understanding of psychology.