Let me ask you something.

Have you ever been in a situation

where you've asked yourself the following question:

is this person, is this person flirting with me?

Picture the scene: you're at a friend's party.

You sashay into the kitchen

because we all know that's where the fun is.

And you see an attractive stranger

getting a drink refill from a box of wine.

Your friend's a student.

And so you get a drink refill,

and you say something hilarious to the attractive stranger.

Attractive stranger laughs.

Good for you.

And then for the next few minutes

there's some eye contact, more talking.

But then after a few minutes

you start thinking, 'Is this person flirting with me?'

Sound familiar, anyone?

See the person sitting next to you, it's happened to them.

The person in front of you, it's happened to them.

You see this is a universal conundrum.

But no more!

Because in the next ten minutes

I'm going to tell you the signs of flirting

and never again will you wonder: is this person flirting with me?

I'm Jean Smith.

I'm a social anthropologist who studies flirting,

a flirtologist, if you will.

Now, as a flirtologist, I do research, I write books, I give talks.

And I work with clients both private and corporate,

all with the goal of helping people to become better flirts.

So I can see some of you sitting there, you're thinking,

'Really!? Is this necessary? I mean teaching people how to flirt?'

Yes.

(Laughter)

Yes, it is.

I've been doing this for over a decade.

And if the question -

is this person flirting with me - was popular then,

it's now everyone-wants- to-take-it-to-prom popular

because over the last decade

the way that we flirt has changed dramatically.

People are relying more and more on digital ways of communicating.

But let's face it,

an emoji with its tongue sticking out,

it's only going to get you so far.

At some point, you're going to have to meet in person.

Unless of course, you're a Japanese male,

and in that case, you could go on to marry your video game girlfriend: Rinko.

So as part of my quest to help people become better flirts,

I did research.

I went to the cities of London, New York, Paris and Stockholm,

and I researched the flirting behaviour of its inhabitants.

And I found there were six things that they all had in common.

Six ways that they could signal they were flirting

and understood when someone was flirting with them.

And I teach this as

H.O.T.-A.P.E.

(Laughter)

It's the six signs - it's an acronym for the six signs of flirting.

So what if I were to say to you: 'You must be a parking ticket

because you've got "fine" written all over you.'

Would you laugh?

Well, 'H' is for humour.

Raise your hand if you thought my joke was funny.

Go ahead, don't be shy.

OK, everyone with their hands up,

I would totally date you.

(Laughter)

Well, if my husband weren't such a control freak.

But anyway, if you didn't raise your hands,

it's not a good match.

It's just not going to work between us.

But it's me, not you.

But this is a good thing

because HOTAPE-ing people -

it takes time.

Does anyone here like reading a good novel,

watching an interesting TED talk?

Does anyone here like test cricket?

These things also take time, especially test cricket, five days?

And this is where people often get it wrong

because they want to attract everybody.

But no, you just want to attract those people

who match with you.

And that's why humour,

specifically a shared sense of humour,

is really important for helping you to differentiate

between your potential HOT-APEs and squirrel monkeys.

I mean, yeah, they're cute.

I'm sure they have a great personality.

But at the end of the day it's a squirrel monkey.

It's no HOT-APE.

So 'O' is for open body language.

Three things to remember.

Number one, don't do this.

I know some of you are guilty of this.

I've heard it all before,

oh, but I'm cold, or, this is comfortable.

OK, whiny voice aside, in which instance

do you want to HOT-APE me more?

Like this?

Or like this, right?

Not HOT-APE.

HOT-APE.

Number two: make sure your shoulders are facing the person.

So not HOT-APE,

not HOT-APE, still not HOT-APE.

HOT-APE.

Not HOT-APE.

HOT-APE.

Now, the third, this is the most important,

and I'm only telling you guys.

This is a really good one.

To see if someone's interested,

look at the direction in which their feet are pointing.

So if their feet are pointing at you, a good sign.

If they're kind of out to the side,

it means they're planning their escape route.

The further away our limbs are from our brain,

the harder it is for us to control them.

So, Shakira, I know you say: the hips don't lie,

but the flirtologist is here to say the feet don't lie.

'T' is for touch.

Like humour, touch also has a positive physiological response on our body.

Now as a general rule, shoulder - it's a safe place to touch.

But as you go down the arm towards the hands,

the touch gets more intimate.

That's why I recommend everyone should kind of tap the hand

and say something like:

'Oh, you're so funny',

people seem to love that stuff.

Oh, another place that would be nice to touch

would be just here

at the top of the back between the shoulder blades,

perhaps if you're passing by, you can give a light touch.

Now, of all of the flirting signs,

people seem to be wariest about using touch.

As one of my clients said,

'Well, the other signs you can get away with.

But when it comes to touch, you're culpable.'

But touch can get you out of the friend zone,

and it can also show someone that you're interested.

And as long as you remember,

I like test cricket,

it lasts five days,

I don't have time to HOT-APE with everyone,

then if the person doesn't respond positively,

you can try someone else.

'A' is for attention.

This one might seem obvious.

The more attention someone is paying you, the more they like you.

But the problem is once you are in the interaction,

it's really hard to be objective.

Which is why in anthropology, we have a methodology,

it's called participant observation.

And I think this could be a really useful tool for you to use in flirting.

It means that you're participating, you're in the interaction,

but you're not so in it that you can't observe.

So if you were to, for example,

touch and say something and see the other person blushed,

it means that you're not so self-conscious

that you can't observe the effect that you're having on the other person.

And that my friends is when the flirting gets really fun.

'P' is for proximity.

Now proximity was used in two ways.

The first, if you see someone across the room

and then all of a sudden they're next to your side,

this is not a coincidence.

It means they like what they see and they must explore further.

The other way proximity was used

is when you're actually in the interaction,

they're standing closer than usual.

So if you're attracted, great.

If you're not, they're in your space.