Why men say those 3 magic words first

HOLLYWOOD movies may portray women as the more emotional sex but it is actually men who say ‘I love you’ first.

An international study into those three little words found that men confessed their ardour after an average of 108 days – compared with 123 for women.

Academics found men made the move first in six out of seven of the countries they analysed, including the UK. The only exception was France, with both men and women equally likely to be the first to proclaim their passion.

Academics, led by Dr Christopher Watkins from Abertay University in Dundee, questioned 1,092 women and 336 men about a current or recent relationship. The respondents were asked when they began thinking about declaring their love, which partner went first, how long it had actually taken – and how it had been received.

The study found that men were more likely to think they are in love about 70 days into a new relationship, a full week ahead of a female partner.

It then took a further month to pluck up the courage to say ‘I love you’, with both sexes equally happy to hear the words.

Scientists suggested there were subconscious factors at play dependent on the ratio of men to women in the countries studied – Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Poland and the UK.

In places where there are more men than women, those men lucky enough to be in a relationship were likely to say ‘I love you’ to stop a competing male moving in. However, if an area had more women than men, a declaration was likely to be made to speed up intimacy, the study found.

‘The escalation of sexual intimacy (via love confession) is more likely in environments where men have greater mating opportunities and female promiscuity is relatively more common,’ the researchers said.