Monday 2 October 2006

Blondes still have more fun

Those reflecting on the weekend's dating successes or failures might be interested in stats from on-line dating sites showing what it takes to get the most attention:
  • looks (the most important factor apparently),
  • height (women like tall men; men don't like tall women so much),
  • hair colour (blondes do better than gingas; women with long hair are preferred over those with short),
  • Body Mass Index (women prefer a higher figure; men don't),
  • income, education, ethnic background ... all are measured down to the last quiintile.
Marginal Revolution has the summary. SSRN has the long and learned report (abstract here). As Tyler Cowen says at Marginal Revolution, "You've got to scroll past Gale and Shapley to get to the good stuff..."

Suffice to say that if success at Soul Bar is your basis for social advancement, then short, thin, bearded gingas better get either a sense of humour or a huge income.

LINKS: What do on-line daters want? - Marginal Revolution
What makes you click? Mate preferences and matching outcomes in online dating - Social Science Research Network (abstract)

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2 comments:

Cactus Kate said...

Interesting.

As a social experiment I have just switched my hair colour from baby blonde to copper and darker blonde to test this well travelled hypothesis.

Blondes do not necessarily have more fun. Statistics wise even if the outliers are removed the new look has upped the output considerably.

Peter Cresswell said...

I trust that all positive externalities have been succesfully internalised?