Cherie Blair might be the exception that proves the rule. In her biography Speaking for Myself, Mrs Blair disclosed she had sex with her husband, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, on their very first date after a bus ride home. Thirty years later, they are still together.

However a new study suggests they may be the lucky ones. Published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology and reported in The Telegraph http://bit.ly/ptnZ the research shows refusing to sleep with a partner on the first date could be one of the keys to making a successful match.

Bridget Jones should have listened because, apparently, there’s a biological explanation to weeding out “good” men from the “bad”, and it all comes down to one simple action: sex on the first date.

Courtship ‘Screens Out’ Cads

Researchers used a mathematical model to show that more reliable men were willing to wait longer before having sex for the first time.

By contrast, less suitable men were not as likely to continue dating.

Professor Robert Seymour, from University College London (UCL), who created the model, said: “Longer courtship is a way for the female to acquire information about the male. By delaying mating, the female is able to reduce the chance that she will mate with a bad male.

“A male’s willingness to court for a long time is a signal that he is likely to be a good male.

“Long courtship is a price paid for increasing the chance that mating, if it occurs, will be a harmonious match which benefits both sexes. This may help to explain the commonly held belief that a woman is best advised not to sleep with a man on a first date.”

Not Foolproof Strategy

Dr Peter Sozou, from Warwick Medical School and LSE Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, who helped to construct the model, warned that the strategy was not foolproof.

He said: “The strategic problem the female faces is how to screen out bad males, and this is where long courtship comes into play.

“A male is assumed to always want to mate with a female, but a good male is more willing to pay the cost of a long courtship in order to claim the prize of mating.

“The female’s strategy is a compromise – a trade-off between on the one hand the greater risk of mating with a bad male if she mates too quickly, and on the other hand the time cost of delay.

“Under this compromise there remains some risk that she will mate with the wrong type of male.

“She cannot eliminate this risk completely unless she decides never to mate.”

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About the author

Jenny
First career as newspaper and magazine journalist with daily newspapers and magazines, then as an editor who successfully launched a new national Sunday newspaper and NZ House & Garden magazine. First woman editor of NZ Listener. Enjoying a second career as a business owner and entrepreneur, health products marketer, social media habitué, blogger and web marketer. Still learning and loving it.