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Flirtation, climate and alcohol

Flirtation is an essential aspect of human interaction! As much as puritanical cultures like ours in Nigeria may deny this, flirtation may even be the foundation of civilization.

Evolutionary psychologists argue that the large human brain, our superior intelligence is equivalent to the male peacock’s tail, a courtship device designed to attract and retain sexual partners.

Our big amazing brains.

Even our achievements, from art to rocket science are merely a side effect of the essential ability to charm each other.

I am, however, not going to focus just on flirtation itself, but as someone who is fascinated by human behaviour, I would like to share some observations I made in the social behaviour in different Europeans. I’m using Europeans because I spent 3 months undergoing a language course in France a few years ago, and had the opportunity to meet and interact with course mates and holiday goers who were mostly from various parts of Europe.

Singing on the streets of Nice.

I found that people from Meditteranean countries such as Spain, Italy and France were the most open, with the highest social self esteem. In fact, I will give you a very interesting example. I was walking down the streets of Nice, in the south of France one evening, and this young man on his little scooter spotted me, caught my attention and started to follow me.

Read Also: The awkward truth about the friend zone

So I thought, okay, fine, if I ignore him long enough, he’ll leave me, but all of a sudden started to sing to me in French. I couldn’t’ help but blush. This man’s behaviour was one of such I have only ever seen in movies. So that’s the mediterraneans for you. Very, very flirtatious.

Drinking and social self esteem.

I noticed that the English and Irish, on the other hand, were always quieter initially, especially during our French classes in the morning. But during outings in the evenings, they loosened up quite a lot after a few pints of beer.

Now, the Swedish, were quite unfriendly. In fact, they were so cold during class; it was so difficult to talk to them, I always avoided them during group activities. It wasn’t until maybe a Friday evening at a club, after they’d had a few shots of Vodka they got friendlier.

Sunlight = friendliness???

So one afternoon, I told my French teacher about these behaviours I noticed. And since he is well travelled, I thought he might have a good explanation, and he did:

He made a very interesting connection between variations in the European climate, the rate of alcohol consumption and social skills. He said that the Mediterraneans are the most open and flirtatious because they experience more months of sunlight and warmth, and therefore spend more time outdoors, physically interacting with each other on the beach or on the streets.

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I actually noticed that most of them did not have smart phones such as the blackberry, another indication that they rely less on social media and more on face-to-face contact.

He said British seem less friendly because they experience much fewer months of warm weather and sunlight. Therefore, they spend more time indoors. So when in a social environment, they have a little more difficulty interacting with outsiders, and so need a little push, which they derive from alcohol, to increase their social self-esteem.

In fact, a Martini Flirting Survey  showed that 27% of British couples first met their current partner in a pub, and what’s more interesting is that alcohol was voted the most effective aid to flirting.

As for the Swedish…apart from Vodka production, can anyone tell me what they are known for?........... IKEA...In short Sweden is so cold that they specialize in producing furniture and other household related materials to encourage people to stay indoors.  So one can understand why they may seem to lack social skills.

Well, this relationship between flirtation, climate and alcohol consumption is a mere observation that hasn’t exactly been recorded in literature.  But I thought it was really interesting, and had to be shared.  So next time you find yourself in a social interactive scenario, play the role as an observer and take note of these three factors, Flirtation, Climate and Alcohol, and you’ll be amazed at the different behaviours we human beings display.

Written by Oyin Egbeyemi.

Oyin Egbeyemi is an engineer-turned-consultant-turned-educationist, runner and writer.

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