Science”s take on online dating and effective matchmaking.
Today, online dating is extremely popular. At the same time, many believe that relationships that have moved from virtual life to real life are unlikely to be successful. How are things really going for you? With their help, how many site or application users will be able to find a match? What information can attract potential partners, and what information can repel them? What do people lie about most often on their profiles? Psychologists and sociologists answer these questions about online dating using statistics.
Contents of the article:
Pros and cons of online dating
Modern society is familiar with a wide range of objects. Every day, people make many choices, from what cereal to put in their basket at the supermarket to more serious matters such as buying a car. Manufacturers try to satisfy the most sophisticated needs of consumers, but this affects the behavior of society as a whole. People value their own desires and choices.
This also affects the number of requirements placed on potential partners today. Dating sites and dating apps save users time by allowing them to avoid dating people with whom things won”t work out due to differences in views or preferences. Constant lack of time is one of the main problems of modern society. In this situation, the ability to quickly weed out unsuitable partners offered by online dating is especially valuable.
The time it takes a user to view a potential partner”s profile cannot be compared to the resources spent on one real date. Meeting people in person is expensive and difficult. This requires money, time and preparation, all of which increase the likelihood that the date will not happen. Using the site and app in one day allows you to consider hundreds of potential partners without having to look at current events.
Summarizing the above, we can highlight the following advantages of online dating:
- Saves time and money.
- You are more likely to meet a partner who meets at least the minimum requirements.
Online dating also has its disadvantages. When meeting in person for the first time, users are often disappointed because their expectations are not met. There are several reasons for this.
First of all, most people who fill out online dating profiles are lying at least about something. Usually these are minor details. People embellish reality to make themselves seem more attractive, but avoid outright lies that are easy to expose. According to a 2014 study, 81% of users misrepresent their weight, height and age. Men can be a few centimeters taller, while women can be several kilograms shorter. Lying about age is less common than lying about height and weight. Moreover, a third of the photos people upload to their profiles are not real. Women are more likely than men to have their photos pre-edited (to hide imperfections, for example), and to use professional photographers to take attractive photos.
Read also: How to find rich and wealthy people? Effective advice
For women, the question “how to make the marriage work” has always been important. Times have changed a lot, but women still say: “I’m looking for a rich man.
Secondly, the algorithms of sites and applications that select potential partners for users are imperfect. The coincidence of political views and income levels does not mean that people are interested in each other.
Websites and applications provide a primitive system of characteristics by which potential partners are filtered. Typically these are general parameters such as gender and orientation, race, financial status, physical appearance, religion and beliefs. People hope to find a soul mate on the other side of the globe through the Internet, but the crude algorithms of dating sites do not contribute to this. They will improve over time, but future matchmaking platforms will definitely be more flexible and sensitive to the user”s personality.
So we can talk about the negative aspects of your next online date.
- Meetings in real life can turn into disappointment.
- The criteria by which the list of potential partners is formed are very simple and cannot fully reflect user requests.
What are the chances of finding a match on dating apps and sites?
In 2005, scientists from the University of Bath in the UK teamed up with experts from the University of the West of England to study the relationships that connected people online and spilled over into real life. Doctors interviewed 229 people aged 18-65 who used dating sites.
Online dating in science — science guide
- 94% of users have met at least one person online who got a second date after a successful first meeting.
- Online dating relationships lasted an average of seven months.
- For 18% of couples who met online, the relationship lasted more than one year.
- The longer the partners’ correspondence lasted, the better they understood each other during live communication. The lengthy messaging also formed a strong emotional attachment between the couple.
- Phone calls had a similar effect. When partners regularly make phone calls before their first meeting, they have the opportunity to like each other and get to know each other.
- Couples decide to start their relationship by finding common ground, most often before or during the first meeting, before exchanging gifts.
- Men who corresponded with their partners long before their first meeting ended up valuing their new relationships more than women and showing deeper emotional attachment.
Scientists have suggested that men form a strong emotional connection with texting because of the anonymity that messaging provides. It may be easier for them to express their emotions in letters than in real life.
According to the study, it was also noted that a significant portion of people who meet online avoid meeting their partners for video chat. In interviews, survey participants admitted that they have a special romance associated with text messages and the inability to see their partners.
Summing up the results of the study, one of the academic authors stated the following about online dating:
What information in your profile attracts potential partners?
Oxford scientists, together with experts from the Alan Turing Institute in London, studied the profiles of possible partners in apps and dating sites and examined the parameters that men and women most often pay attention to.
Women showed strikingly less clarity than men. For them, criteria such as education, income level, religious views and the presence of bad habits played a big role.
Men who called themselves altruists in their profiles and also mentioned abstaining from alcohol were very popular with women. At the same time, women were repelled by aggressive men who were prone to conflict, and by men with whom they had a significant age difference.
Mentions of sports were popular among women. Men”s interest was reduced due to the same qualities as women — age difference, rudeness and conflict.
