Valentine's Day, intimate gifts make women smile more than traditional presents
Relationships on Female First
• Romantic dinner at home, a personal massager, and lingerie top list of gifts that make women smile on Valentine's Day, beating clichéd presents of roses and chocolates
• Study, which measured the way the body reacts to a range of gifts, also demonstrates how being made to smile can improve your health and well-being
In the first study of its kind, scientists have proven that women get more smiles from intimate gifts on Valentine's Day than traditional presents such as roses or a box of chocolates.
Researchers from Birkbeck University of London were commissioned by Smile Makers, a new brand of personal massager, to measure women's neurological response to gifts from their partners in a bid to find out what women really want this Valentine's Day.
Monitored using electroenchephalogical (EEG) headsets, a group were presented with a range of gifts. The equipment measured changes in the brain associated with the kind of joy that makes you smile. A personal massager and lingerie scored well, whilst a hamper containing the fixings for a candlelit dinner, including a bottle of bubbly, topped the list.
In the experiment the gifts that made women smile the most were:1. Romantic meal for two hamper (featured in women's top three reactions on 75 per cent of occasions)2. Smile Makers personal massager (65 per cent)3. Lingerie (60 per cent)4. Red rose (30 per cent)5. Box of chocolates (25 per cent)
The new research also investigated the physiological effect that smiling has on the body. Monitoring brainwaves, heart rate and blood flow, it found smiling triggered a calming response on the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in a slower heart rate, lower blood pressure and a decreased respiration rate - all factors associated with improved health and well-being.
Psychologist, Dr Beverly Steffert said: "Humans have a feel good factor which is activated by anything that promotes the survival of the species such as eating, drinking and sex. When receiving a gift, people are also able to think ahead and delay immediate gratification for a longer-term reward. We naturally process that flowers and chocolates, however nice, are short-lived, whereas a gift such as a hamper shared between two will create a lasting memory and a personal massager that can be used time and again can create many future rewards, which could explain why these gifts topped the list and made for the biggest genuine smiles."
The parasympathetic nervous system is also activated for sexual activity. So when choosing a Valentine's Day present, giving a gift that makes its recipient smile could strike exactly the right tone.
Peder Wikstroem from Smile Makers said: "We love the fact that British women prefer gifts that demonstrate a sense of fun and imagination over traditional, clichéd presents like chocolates and roses."
He continued: "We believe beauty starts with a smile and that women will like Smile Makers because they are packaged in a fun, approachable way and are available only in High Street shops." The experiment was led by scientists from Birkbeck University of London and Myndplay, a UK-based neurofeedback technology research company for Smile Makers part of the Superdrug Group