I Vote For Delusional

It's not like this is news but it seems if you say "boo!" to a guy, he thinks you want him.

Call it ego, machismo or downright delusional behavior, but men are more likely than women to ''oversexualize'' conversations and incorrectly assume sexual interest, a study says.

Researchers from the University of Connecticut and Elon University found that after a first meeting, men were more likely than women to infer a sexual chemistry, regardless of whether it was there.

''Men were more likely to perceive their partner as sexy and flirtatious, but that didn't at all correspond with how she saw him or she saw herself,'' said Maurice Levesque, co-author of the study.

''Behavior that looks like she is engaged in the conversation may actually be taken as signs of sexual interest, as opposed to what she intends, which is friendliness,'' he said.

In the study, in the latest issue of Psychology of Women Quarterly, college men were paired with college women for a conversation that they were told was for a study about ''conversational smoothness.''

Each pair was encouraged to have a five-minute conversation about positive and negative aspects of college life. Follow-up interviews with participants came next.

''Initially, we thought to determine whether we could identify what types of men were prone to do this,'' Levesque said. While they found that particularly ''masculine'' men were no more likely to oversexualize their conversations, there was a hint that men who self-assessed themselves as more ''sensitive'' were less likely to do so, he said.

He offered some advice to both sexes based on the findings.

''For men, there is a step back here somewhere, where you have to think about what cues you are actually getting,'' he said.

''For women, be aware this may well be a judgment he is making almost regardless of what you're doing.''