Individual Differences in the Communication of Romantic Interest: Development of the Flirting Styles Inventory

Romantic interest is signalled in at least five styles, which is one reason it gets misread.

Hall, J. A., Carter, S., Cody, M. J. & Albright, J. M. (2010). Individual Differences in the Communication of Romantic Interest: Development of the Flirting Styles Inventory. Communication Quarterly, 58(4), 365–393.

Type

Journal article

Find it

doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2010.524874

Checked

Against the abstract, 15 September 2026

Why it is on the list

From over five thousand adults, the authors identified five styles of communicating romantic interest: traditional, physical, sincere, playful and polite. They are self-reported, so the inventory measures how people think they signal, not what receivers understand. Week 12’s open issue on romance starts here: if there are five dialects, misreading one isn’t a personal failing.