"I think your response to No Figuring Women this week was dead on," writes Slog tipper Jim. "But some recent research by Melissa Burkley of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater may suggest something else is at play."

A new study provides evidence for what many have long suspected: that single women are much keener on pursuing a man who's already taken than a singleton.... They asked 184 heterosexual students at the university to participate in a study on sexual attraction and told the volunteers that a computer program would match them with an ideal partner. Half the participants were single and half attached, with equal numbers of men and women in each group. Unknown to the participants, everyone was offered a fictitious candidate partner who had been tailored to match their interests exactly. The photograph of "Mr Right" was the same for all women participants, as was that of the ideal women presented to the men. Half the participants were told their ideal mate was single, and the other half that he or she was already in a romantic relationship.

"Everything was the same across all participants, except whether their ideal mate was already attached or not," says Burkley.

The most striking result was in the responses of single women. Offered a single man, 59 per cent were interested in pursuing a relationship. But when he was attached, 90 per cent said they were up for the chase.

The researcher theorizes that women are more attracted to attached guys because their current girlfriends—the fact that they have girlfriends at all—essentially "vouches for" the guy. He's relationship material. The fact that he's in a relationship proves it and women want guys who are relationship material... even if they have to destroy a guy's current relationship to get him.

Women are eeeeeeeevil.