When it comes to online dating, there are always people who receive tons of messages. While others wonder about their empty inbox. However, this is not always related to their personal photos and profile texts, as has now been proven in a study by the University of Michigan.
In fact, age seems to play a crucial role in online dating. The cliché of the young, pretty lady with a mature, chic gentleman at her side seems to have something to it. The classic sugar daddy / sugar babe relationship is booming on online services for singles.
Older men receive more chat messages
For the study, 200,000 active users of dating communities were interviewed, and their behavior on online dating sites was monitored. With quite amazing results: Most messages are sent to men with an average age of 50 years. The ladies are most popular when they are 18 years old.
32 years of age difference? What is ordinary when flirting online is not yet common in our society. Although you can see them every now and then: A sugar daddy with his sugar babe. But with such an age difference, irritated looks on the street are still the order of the day.
What single men should offer – education and charm
Besides age, it is the educational background of a man that is important to women. The study by Elizabeth Bruch and Martin Newman found that men with a high standard of education received a lot of messages. Especially male users with a doctorate are highly coveted on online dating sites.
For women, however, education plays a subordinate role. On the contrary! Women with higher degrees are more of a deterrent to many men, while a lower level of education such as a bachelor’s degree is still considered appropriate on the male single market. Age is the decisive factor. Sweet eighteen is the best age for single ladies in dating communities.
Personal attractiveness as a benchmark
Another exciting result of the study: Both the male and female subjects prefer to send messages to people who were more attractive than themselves. However, this flirting and dating “out-of-league” proves to be really successful in online dating. Those who gave it a shot, could often convince an attractive person and get to know him or her on a personal date.
Online dating therefore has its advantages: If you have little chance of finding an attractive lady in real life, you may score with charm, wit and intelligence while chatting on a dating site and convince your chosen one. And for women, beautiful pictures can be the door opener to a charming sugar daddy. At the real meeting, you’ll find out if there is chemistry.
