Hello! How are you? And don’t you look lovely today… why, I do declare you quite take my breath away! Is it working? Are you charmed? Ready to be seduced into my way of thinking over the next few – *lowers voice and eyelids* – minutes?

No? Oh, bugger. I always was rubbish at this flirting lark. Which is particularly bad news in the wake of a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, which has shown that it can be a valuable asset to women in the workplace and in all sorts of business transactions. One of the experiments carried out by research director Dr Laura Kray and her team found that flirtatious women were able to get the price of a car lowered by about a fifth, and could expect to increase their chances of success in any given scenario by as much as a third.

So, the good news is: Those killer heels you fractured your credit card to buy will actually pay for themselves in no time. The bad news is… well, where to begin?

According to the Berkeley gang, feminine charm (which they define as a combination of warmth, friendliness and flirtation – which itself comprises playfulness, flattery and sex appeal) is a management technique available to women which can help them evade the normal perils of being seen as too ‘masculine’ (ie powerful and authoritative) or too feminine (ie soft, friendly and a pushover). Flirting, according to the researchers, is known to have a selfish motivation. In other words, everyone involved is aware that you are only acting this way in order to further your own goals – and so you are perceived as powerful, a ‘player’ at the table but the flirting blunts that unappealing forthrightness so prized in men, and makes you seemly instead.

The first piece of bad news, then, is that some of this is true. Women in the workplace, especially in the private, corporate world, are frequently faced with the catch 22 of being judged by male norms and being disapproved for meeting them (how unwomanly!) or for failing to (how incompetent!). Flirtation can effectively muddy these waters and seem to offer a nifty way to duck these obstacles.

“Flirting in the workplace won’t work long-term"