DATING SITES CAUSE US TO LOWER OUR STANDARDS

(February, 2017) New research suggests that dating sites might actually lead people to lower their standards in looking for a partner. According to researchers at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, singles tend to have a clear idea as to what’s on their dating wish lists, but are actually more likely to go out with people they met online who don’t actually meet those requirements. Researchers looked at the behavior of nearly 42,000 people between the ages of 18 and 80 who were using an Australian dating site called “RSVP” from Jan. 2016 through April 2016. Participants’ “wish lists” were comprised of seven categories for an ideal mate: hair color, eye color, body type, education level, personality type, political view, and religious affiliation. The authors determined that instead of searching until they found someone who met their dating wish list criteria, participants were likely to communicate with people who had only some of those characteristics. The study showed that more than 65 percent of the contacts the participants made with potential dates on the site had one or less category that matched their wish list. About one in three contacts had zero matching attributes.
(The research was published as “Preference vs Choice in Online Dating” in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking.)
* Translation: Most people are too horny to search very long.
* Isn’t this known as the “Closing Time Effect”?
* Really, you can get the same effect after a couple of pitchers of beer.
* Are people lowering their standards or just learning to be realistic?
* On the bright side, if you use this dating site you can be pretty sure you’re disappointing your date, so that weight is off your shoulders.
* Relax, lowering your standards is better than trying to nail someone out of your league.
* Maybe people assume that – since it’s a dating service – everyone is lying anyway.
* I mean we can’t possible have that many people who love long walks on the beach. There aren’t enough beaches in the world to make that work.