Added to that, I would also have to describe my "ideal partner" in some way and this has always seemed like an unappealing and vaguely sexist exercise in optimism and imagination. So I took advice from a scientist at Queen Mary University, Prof Khalid Khan, who has reviewed dozens of scientific research papers on attraction and online dating. His work was undertaken not out of pure scientific curiosity but rather to help a friend of his get a girlfriend after repeated failures.

It seemed testament to a very strong friendship to me - the paper he produced was the result of a comprehensive review of vast amounts of data. His research made clear that some profiles work better than others and, into the bargain, his friend was now happily loved-up thanks to his advice. BBC iWonder: Do you know the secret to getting a date online? Take the scientific test to see if you can build the perfect dating profile.

Studies have shown that profiles with this balance receive the most replies because people have more confidence to drop you a line. This seemed manageable to me. But he had other findings - women are apparently more attracted to men who demonstrate courage, bravery and a willingness to take risks rather than altruism and kindness. So much for hoping that my medical career helping people was going to be an asset. He also advised that if you want to make people think you're funny, you have to show them not tell them.

Much easier said that done. And choose a username that starts with a letter higher in the alphabet. People seem to subconsciously match earlier initials with academic and professional success. I'd have to stop being Xand and go back to being Alex for a while. These tips were, surprisingly, extremely helpful. Don't get me wrong - writing a profile is a miserable business, but I had a few things to aim for that helped break my writer's block and pen something that I hoped was half-decent.

With my profile out there, the next problem became clear. Who should I go on a date with? With a seemingly endless pick of potential dates online, mathematician Hannah Fry showed me a strategy to try.

The Optimal Stopping Theory is a method that can help us arrive at the best option when sifting through many choices one after another. I had set aside time to look at women's profiles on Tinder, swiping left to reject or right to like them. My aim was to swipe right just once, to go on the best possible date.

If I picked one of the first people I saw, I could miss out on someone better later on. But if I left it too late, I might be left with Miss Wrong. I should then choose the next person that's better than all the previous ones. I won't lie - it wasn't easy rejecting 37 women, some of whom looked pretty great.

But I stuck to the rules and made contact with the next best one. And we had a nice date. If I applied this theory to all my dates or relationships, I can start to see it makes a lot of sense. The maths of this is spectacularly complicated, but we've probably evolved to apply a similar kind of principle ourselves.

Have fun and learn things with roughly the first third of the potential relationships you could ever embark on. Then, when you have a fairly good idea of what's out there and what you're after, settle down with the next best person to come along.

Personal profiles are not just for romantic pursuit. People create profiles for networking, advancement, and business opportunities, through sites such as the business-oriented social networking service LinkedIn. As of November , million people had LinkedIn profiles. Previous research on online dating has focused on how people present themselves in their profiles. Those studies found that some people tend to exaggerate or lie about themselves and their accomplishments. For the new study, researchers took a different tack by studying online dating from the point of view of the person sorting through the profiles.

Whom are they most interested in meeting? To do this, they created eight online dating profiles—four men and four women—with various combinations of two perspectives.

Once the profiles were created in a template from OKCupid—a free, online dating service—they were shown to adults who were using or had used an online dating service. There were men and women, with a mean age was Participants were asked to judge the profiles and decide which ones they would contact. Researchers expected that profiles that were presented with high selective self-presentation—those who sounded perfect—and high warranting— those who provided specifics that could be traced to a real person—would be the most popular.

In other words, people were turned off by profiles that sounded too good to be true. This was especially true for viewers who said they preferred online social interaction. The more specific information a profile contained that could be traced to a real person, the more the viewer trusted the profile.

But maybe not in your best pair of shoes. Source: University of Iowa. Search for:. Science Health Culture Environment. Share this Article.

As many as one in 10 Americans age 18 and older use online dating sites or a mobile dating app—according to a study by the Pew Research Center. What do people really like in an online dating profile? The answer to that question took researchers by surprise. Researchers wanted to know how people who use these sites respond to different ways people present themselves online. Most people were drawn to individuals whose profiles were positive but not over-the-top glowing.

More importantly, participants preferred people whose online persona could be clearly traced to a real person. That means people want details, not broad generalities, especially about where a prospective love interest works and what he or she does for a living. If you can name something or provide people with a link to get there, then do it.

The idea is the viewer will think this is a real person. High and lead author Crystal Wotipka, a graduate teaching assistant, presented their preliminary findings late last year at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association. They plan to submit a paper to a peer-reviewed journal this spring. Personal profiles are not just for romantic pursuit. People create profiles for networking, advancement, and business opportunities, through sites such as the business-oriented social networking service LinkedIn.

As of November , million people had LinkedIn profiles. Previous research on online dating has focused on how people present themselves in their profiles. Those studies found that some people tend to exaggerate or lie about themselves and their accomplishments. For the new study, researchers took a different tack by studying online dating from the point of view of the person sorting through the profiles. Whom are they most interested in meeting? To do this, they created eight online dating profiles—four men and four women—with various combinations of two perspectives.

Once the profiles were created in a template from OKCupid—a free, online dating service—they were shown to adults who were using or had used an online dating service. There were men and women, with a mean age was Participants were asked to judge the profiles and decide which ones they would contact.

Researchers expected that profiles that were presented with high selective self-presentation—those who sounded perfect—and high warranting— those who provided specifics that could be traced to a real person—would be the most popular.

In other words, people were turned off by profiles that sounded too good to be true. This was especially true for viewers who said they preferred online social interaction.

The more specific information a profile contained that could be traced to a real person, the more the viewer trusted the profile. But maybe not in your best pair of shoes. Source: University of Iowa. Search for:. Science Health Culture Environment. Share this Article. You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.

To avoid hiring bias, orgs need cybervetting rules. Neighbors can close gap when teens missed bonding with mom. Stay Connected. Subscribe to our Newsletter. Add your information below to receive daily updates. Sign Up. Load More. First Name. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

How long has it been since you first started online dating? No image: matches and pickup in 8 simple rules of Indeed, pick - season 3: 8 simple rules for dating my daughter. Why trust the algorithm to present the right profiles when you can swipe right on everyone? There may be groups in which people who would not necessarily score as high by our measures could still have an awesome and fulfilling dating life. Successful online dating apps. Read more: Why cramming for tests often fails If you have an everyday psychological phenomenon you'd like to see written about in these columns please get in touch tomstafford or ideas idiolect.

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