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Here’s how we know: Researchers at the University of Kansas paired up 104 male and female heterosexual college students and had them chat each other up for 10 to 12 minutes. Afterwards each participant filled out a questionnaire that asked, among other things, whether they had flirted with their partner, and whether they thought their partner had flirted with them.

Both sexes were good at detecting when they weren’t being flirted with. Researchers found that guys and girls were accurate on this front about 80 percent of the time. But when their partner actually was flirting with them, everyone pretty much sucked at noticing it. The study found that 36 percent of men accurately detected flirting from their female partner, while a mere 18 percent of women read guys’ signals right. In one notable pairing, both the man and the woman said they were flirting with the other, yet both indicated they thought the other wasn’t flirting with them! Basically, any behavior less than a flashing neon sign saying, “I am flirting with you,” was likely to be missed.  Read More