Translator: Queenie Lee
Reviewer: Ivana Korom
00:00
Let me ask you something.
00:10
Have you ever been in a situation
00:13
where you've asked yourself
the following question:
00:15
is this person, is this person
flirting with me?
00:21
Picture the scene:
you're at a friend's party.
00:27
You sashay into the kitchen
00:30
because we all know
that's where the fun is.
00:32
And you see an attractive stranger
00:35
getting a drink refill from a box of wine.
00:38
Your friend's a student.
00:41
And so you get a drink refill,
00:43
and you say something hilarious
to the attractive stranger.
00:46
Attractive stranger laughs.
00:50
And then for the next few minutes
00:53
there's some eye contact, more talking.
00:55
But then after a few minutes
00:58
you start thinking,
'Is this person flirting with me?'
01:00
Sound familiar, anyone?
01:05
See the person sitting next to you,
it's happened to them.
01:09
The person in front of you,
it's happened to them.
01:12
You see this is a universal conundrum.
01:15
Because in the next ten minutes
01:20
I'm going to tell you
the signs of flirting
01:22
and never again will you wonder:
is this person flirting with me?
01:25
I'm a social anthropologist
who studies flirting,
01:32
a flirtologist, if you will.
01:36
Now, as a flirtologist, I do research,
I write books, I give talks.
01:39
And I work with clients
both private and corporate,
01:45
all with the goal of helping people
to become better flirts.
01:48
So I can see some of you
sitting there, you're thinking,
01:53
'Really!? Is this necessary?
I mean teaching people how to flirt?'
01:56
I've been doing this for over a decade.
02:04
And if the question -
02:06
is this person flirting with me -
was popular then,
02:07
it's now everyone-wants-
to-take-it-to-prom popular
02:10
because over the last decade
02:14
the way that we flirt
has changed dramatically.
02:16
People are relying more and more
on digital ways of communicating.
02:20
an emoji with its tongue sticking out,
02:24
it's only going to get you so far.
02:27
At some point, you're going
to have to meet in person.
02:30
Unless of course, you're a Japanese male,
02:33
and in that case, you could go on to marry
your video game girlfriend: Rinko.
02:35
So as part of my quest
to help people become better flirts,
02:40
I went to the cities of London,
New York, Paris and Stockholm,
02:45
and I researched the flirting behaviour
of its inhabitants.
02:49
And I found there were six things
that they all had in common.
02:53
Six ways that they could signal
they were flirting
02:57
and understood when someone
was flirting with them.
03:00
And I teach this as
03:04
It's the six signs - it's an acronym
for the six signs of flirting.
03:11
So what if I were to say to you:
'You must be a parking ticket
03:17
because you've got "fine"
written all over you.'
03:21
Well, 'H' is for humour.
03:27
Raise your hand
if you thought my joke was funny.
03:29
Go ahead, don't be shy.
03:32
OK, everyone with their hands up,
03:35
I would totally date you.
03:37
Well, if my husband
weren't such a control freak.
03:40
But anyway, if you
didn't raise your hands,
03:42
it's not a good match.
03:45
It's just not going to work between us.
03:46
But it's me, not you.
03:49
But this is a good thing
03:51
because HOTAPE-ing people -
03:53
Does anyone here
like reading a good novel,
03:58
watching an interesting TED talk?
04:01
Does anyone here like test cricket?
04:03
These things also take time,
especially test cricket, five days?
04:06
And this is where people
often get it wrong
04:12
because they want to attract everybody.
04:14
But no, you just want
to attract those people
04:16
who match with you.
04:19
And that's why humour,
04:21
specifically a shared sense of humour,
04:23
is really important
for helping you to differentiate
04:25
between your potential HOT-APEs
and squirrel monkeys.
04:28
I mean, yeah, they're cute.
04:35
I'm sure they have a great personality.
04:37
But at the end of the day
it's a squirrel monkey.
04:39
So 'O' is for open body language.
04:44
Three things to remember.
04:48
Number one, don't do this.
04:49
I know some of you are guilty of this.
04:53
I've heard it all before,
04:55
oh, but I'm cold, or, this is comfortable.
04:56
OK, whiny voice aside, in which instance
05:00
do you want to HOT-APE me more?
05:03
Or like this, right?
05:06
Number two: make sure your shoulders
are facing the person.
05:13
not HOT-APE, still not HOT-APE.
05:21
Now, the third,
this is the most important,
05:30
and I'm only telling you guys.
05:32
This is a really good one.
05:34
To see if someone's interested,
05:36
look at the direction
in which their feet are pointing.
05:38
So if their feet
are pointing at you, a good sign.
05:41
If they're kind of out to the side,
05:44
it means they're planning
their escape route.
05:46
The further away our limbs
are from our brain,
05:50
the harder it is for us to control them.
05:52
So, Shakira, I know you say:
the hips don't lie,
05:56
but the flirtologist is here
to say the feet don't lie.
06:00
Like humour, touch also has a positive
physiological response on our body.
06:07
Now as a general rule, shoulder -
it's a safe place to touch.
06:13
But as you go down the arm
towards the hands,
06:17
the touch gets more intimate.
06:22
That's why I recommend everyone
should kind of tap the hand
06:24
and say something like:
06:28
'Oh, you're so funny',
06:29
people seem to love that stuff.
06:31
Oh, another place
that would be nice to touch
06:36
at the top of the back
between the shoulder blades,
06:40
perhaps if you're passing by,
you can give a light touch.
06:43
Now, of all of the flirting signs,
06:46
people seem to be wariest
about using touch.
06:49
As one of my clients said,
06:53
'Well, the other signs
you can get away with.
06:55
But when it comes to touch,
you're culpable.'
06:58
But touch can get you
out of the friend zone,
07:01
and it can also show someone
that you're interested.
07:04
And as long as you remember,
07:07
I like test cricket,
07:09
it lasts five days,
07:10
I don't have time
to HOT-APE with everyone,
07:12
then if the person
doesn't respond positively,
07:14
you can try someone else.
07:17
'A' is for attention.
07:19
This one might seem obvious.
07:22
The more attention someone is paying you,
the more they like you.
07:25
But the problem is
once you are in the interaction,
07:29
it's really hard to be objective.
07:31
Which is why in anthropology,
we have a methodology,
07:34
it's called participant observation.
07:37
And I think this could be a really
useful tool for you to use in flirting.
07:39
It means that you're participating,
you're in the interaction,
07:44
but you're not so in it
that you can't observe.
07:47
So if you were to, for example,
07:50
touch and say something
and see the other person blushed,
07:53
it means that you're not so self-conscious
07:56
that you can't observe the effect
that you're having on the other person.
07:59
And that my friends
is when the flirting gets really fun.
08:03
'P' is for proximity.
08:08
Now proximity was used in two ways.
08:11
The first, if you see someone
across the room
08:13
and then all of a sudden
they're next to your side,
08:16
this is not a coincidence.
08:19
It means they like what they see
and they must explore further.
08:21
The other way proximity was used
08:25
is when you're actually
in the interaction,
08:27
they're standing closer than usual.
08:30
So if you're attracted, great.
08:32
If you're not, they're in your space.
08:34
So the last of the flirting signs
is the most important.
08:37
Can anyone guess what it is?
08:42
This was the number one way
08:49
that people could understand someone
who's flirting with them
08:51
and the difference
between friendly and flirting.
08:54
So in flirting eye-contact
the gaze happened more often.
08:58
It was held for a longer amount of time,
09:03
and it was more intense.
09:05
So using these signs:
09:09
humour, open body language, touch,
attention, proximity, eye contact,
09:10
you can recognize
when someone is flirting with you.
09:15
And as a general rule,
the more signs the better.
09:18
Now my favourite story of HOT-APE
being used in the field
09:22
was relayed to me by one of my clients.
09:25
She had shared HOT-APE
with all of her friends.
09:27
And one night, they went out
HOTAPE-ing guys.
09:30
One of her friends was making
eye contact with a guy at the bar,
09:33
and she went over and spoke with him.
09:38
She came back a few minutes later,
09:40
bit dejected, my client said,
09:42
'What happened? What happened?'
And she's like, 'Oh nothing.'
09:45
'Well, did you HOT-APE him?'
She's like, 'Yeah, yeah.'
09:49
And then they started
going through the sides:
09:52
'Did you use humour?'
She's like 'Yeah, yeah.'
09:54
'What about open body language?
You didn't do this like you usually do?'
09:57
'What about touch?
Did you touch him? Back, hand.'
10:01
'Uh, God, I didn't use touch.'
10:05
And then they started laughing,
like, 'Well, no wonder.'
10:08
And what normally could have been
a situation of dejection
10:11
or, you know, feeling bad,
10:15
it just turned into a fun game.
10:17
And this is the power of HOTAPE
10:20
because it turns flirting
into what it should be.
10:23
It's something fun, easy,
it's not a big deal.
10:26
And when we think
about flirting like this,
10:30
it totally changes
our paradigm of rejection.
10:32
And in situations where we're often
feeling self-conscious or a bit nervous,
10:36
we have scientific tools
to help us remember what to do.
10:41
it makes it's not about us,
10:47
it's a checklist; it's a task.
10:49
It's things to do rather than
how we often see flirting
10:52
which is a stranger's
evaluation of our worth.
10:57
So now you know the signs of flirting,
11:01
and I encourage you to not just
recognize but be proactive,
11:04
because these signs also use
for you to express interest.
11:09
And this is my challenge to you:
11:14
forget about the game,
forget about the rules,
11:18
Take action and go HOTAPE someone.
11:24