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This may flabberghast you but it turns out that online daters target potential matches who are way hotter than they are. SHOCKING! I know. A new study found that men and women aim “out of their league” when online dating because we all have highly inflated views of ourselves.
The “No Shit Sherlock” study of the century that was actually financed and researchers spent hundreds of grueling hours attempting to discover something that was already oblivious to everyone. And you thought that you were wasting your life away.
A new study examined several heterosexual “popular, free online dating services” in four major US cities: Boston, Chicago, New York and Seattle. They analyzed hundreds of thousands of users and came to the conclusion that people want to date someone out of their league.
A study, which was published in the journal Science Advances, found that both men and women messaged potential matches who were on average 25 percent more attractive than they were. What about personality?
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The study found people have “a hierarchy of desirability,” where individuals were “ranked from least to most desirable, and their ranking will predict how and to what extent they are pursued by others.”
For the study, “desirability” was defined by the number of messages someone received, especially by some who is desirable themselves (Aren’t you glad your Tinder pickup line of “If you were a triangle you’d be acute one” is being used for scientific purposes?). The study also utilized PageRank, which is employed by web search engines, to calculate desirability.
The researchers also discovered that men were willing to put more work in for desirable mates. Men wrote longer messages to potential dates who they found to be more desirable. However, the study found that the longer messages were not any more successful so to all you modern-day Leo Tolstoy’s, knock it off with the literary epics in the DMs.
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The most popular individual in all four cities was a “30-year-old woman living in New York, received 1,504 messages during the period of observation, equivalent to one message every 30 min, day and night, for the entire month.” Women have it so tough on dating apps.
The study found that “older women are less desirable, while older men are more so.” Women’s desirability peaked at 18, while men’s desirability increased until they were 50-years-old. So ladies, better find that special someone, and guys you’ve got plenty of time so don’t rush into anything.
RELATED: Women Are Happiest When Coupled Up With Men Less Attractive Than Them Study Claims
[France24]