Sound of Clock's Ticking Influences Women's Desire to Marry or Have Children: Study

Listening to the sound of the clock ticking makes women want to marry and start a family, finds a study.

 A recent research found women relate the sound of the clock ticking to their own reproductive clock and feel the urge to have children. The experiment involved 59 men and women who were questioned about the ideal age they prefer to get married, settle down and have children all to the sound of a clock's ticking in the background.

The participants' early childhood life, financial security and the qualities they mostly want to see in their spouses were noted to assess their opinion on social status and family life based on the responses to the ticking sound. It was seen women who hailed from poor families or had a difficult childhood reportedly were in a hurry to give birth even though it meant they had to be married to a less successful and financially sound individual, reports the Daily Mail.

Subjects from different socio-economic backgrounds exhibited different reactions to the sound of clock ticking. In addition, it was also observed women's childhood financial status influenced the way they perceived the clock's ticking. Women from affluent and wealthy families seemed to be pickier about the qualities they liked to see in their prospective partners or spouses. Men on the other hand were not affected by the sound of clock's ticking.

 "Women's reproductive capacity is strongly constrained by their age. Unlike men, who can produce offspring until a very old age, women lose their ability to conceive children at menopause. Subtle clues that signal the passage of time - such as the perception of a ticking clock - may signal threats to a woman's reproductive potential," write the authors in the study, reports the Daily Mail.

More information is available online in the journal Human Nature.