Online Dating Study Shows That Strereotypes Are Often There For A Reason
from the shocking dept
If someone told you that they were going to conduct a study on what types of profile would make it so you were more likely to have people contact you on a dating site, you could probably guess what the results would say. And, you know what? You'd be absolutely right. From the results of just such a study, it appears that certain stereotypes may be quite accurate when looked at in the aggregate. Guys contact women who post pictures, showing that looks are important. Women contact guys who earn more than they do. Men don't like to contact women who earn more than they do. Men who say they want a long-term relationship are more likely to be contacted than men who admit they're just looking for a "casual relationship." And, oh yeah, the evidence suggests that everyone on these sites believes they're above average. It's not quite clear what this proves, other than that the obvious still stands. Of course, aggregate data on things like a dating site may mean little to nothing to each individual person who, after all, really only needs to find the right person, rather than the most people (though, of course, those who are interested in "casual relationships" may disagree -- but people aren't contacting them anyway, apparently).
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
