Well, money, job and education make a difference for women. Not so much for guys.
Last week I wrote my second installment in a series about online dating. This series is based on material I found in an excellent research project addressing online dating. This project looked at preferences of Match.com members in the San Diego and Boston areas. The researchers were able to take a deep dive into Match.com’s computers in order to see what qualities men and women were attracted to, who they looked at, emailed with, etc.
If you’re interested in reading part or all of the study, it can be found here:
http://designogselvfremstillelse.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/dating1.pdf
Here are some more interesting conclusions. Keep in mind these conclusions do not hold for every person:
Guys who earn more money do considerably better than women who earn more money. p.22
Higher levels of education increase guys’ success, but not womens’. To the contrary, women with a post-graduate degree incur a slight penalty. p. 22.
Men’s occupations make a difference, but women’s do not. The following jobs are associated with the most success: law (77% premium), military (49% premium), and firemen (45% premium). p. 22. I’m surprised that doctors don’t command a greater premium here. And I’m guessing that investment banking, while astonishingly lucrative, is not a well-enough-known profession to be on the radar screen of most of these women.
Another interesting finding is that women seem to have a strong preference for men with equivalent education levels or slightly above. But they seem reluctant to go for guys with a great deal more education. Men with a masters degree received far fewer first-contact emails from women with high-school degrees. These women would go for guys with college degrees, but less so for guys with additional education.
Interestingly, this doesn’t work in reverse. A man with a college or graduate degree does not seem to base his choices on a woman’s education. p. 23. I’m guessing that’s because guys are so focused on looks that they largely relegate other attributes to the back seat.
Trying to figure out why these conclusions hold is fascinating. Figuring out the guys’ motivations seems fairly easy. Figuring out the women’s motivations for these preferences is more difficult. Ladies, would any of you venture a guess as to the reason behind any of these preferences?
I’ll return with another installment soon.
