Break Rules, Get Laid

When you break rules, you seem more powerful.

When people have power, they act the part. Powerful people smile less, interrupt others, and speak in a louder voice. When people do not respect the basic rules of social behavior, they lead others to believe that they have power, according to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science.

People with power have a very different experience of the world than people without it. The powerful have fewer rules to follow, and they live in environments of money, knowledge and support. People without power live with threats of punishment and firm limits according to the research team lead by Gerben Van Kleef of the University of Amsterdam. Because the powerful are freer to break the rules—does breaking the rules seem more powerful?

Good question. If game is a valid concept and an effective means of making oneself more attractive to women by projecting the behavior and mannerisms of higher value, then the answer will be yes. Let’s find out!

People read about a visitor to an office who took a cup of employee coffee without asking or about a bookkeeper that bent accounting rules. The rule breakers were seen as more in control, and powerful compared to people who didn’t steal the coffee, or didn’t break bookkeeping rules.

Acting rudely also leads people to see power. People who saw a video of a man at a sidewalk café put his feet on another chair, drop cigarette ashes on the ground and order a meal brusquely thought the man was more likely to “get to make decisions” and able to “get people to listen to what he says” than the people who saw a video of the same man behaving politely.

Survey saaays… you don’t have to actually be powerful to be perceived as powerful by others. Corollary: You don’t have to actually be servicing a harem of hot babes to be perceived as an attractive man with lots of options on the table. All you need to do is mimic the traits of the powerful and the attractive. This study, despite its modest aims, is a huge endorsement of game.

What happens when people interact with a rule breaker? Van Kleef and colleagues had people come to the lab, and interact with a rule follower and a rule breaker. The rule follower was polite and acted normally, while the rule breaker arrived late, threw down his bag on a table and put up his feet. After the interaction, people thought the rule breaker had more power and was more likely to “get others to do what he wants.”

“Norm violators are perceived as having the capacity to act as they please” write the researchers. Power may be corrupting, but showing the outward signs of corruption makes people think you’re powerful.

Bingo. And showing the outward signs of male desirability makes women think you’re desirable.

Chicks dig power. If you can ape the mannerisms and conversational technique of powerful men, chicks will think you are more powerful than you may objectively be. When chicks think this, they get wet. Some of them even have your baby in secret.

A big part of the mission statement of this blog, this outpost of outrageous sanity, this kingdom of clear thought, is to impart you, the readers, with the knowledge and tools to act in such ways that you maximize your attractiveness to women. This includes improving your body language, voice, and social skills so that you emanate the aura of a powerful man, a state of male being which is universally arousing to women. And now science has come to the fore, zig zagging along its destination, to confirm what we implacable womanizers have known all along — game is the real deal. Call it game, or call it charisma — if you don’t have it, you are handicapping yourself in the dating market.

So the next time you want to impress the ladies with your massively tumescent power, kick your legs up on the table, drop your ashes on the ground, interrupt freely, glance around the room when others are talking, nod up then down, take your time responding to questions, and for god’s sake, stop smiling like a goof.