Graphic
I’m getting to this a little later than I planned but oh well. So as I established earlier, I love graphs. Especially when related to personal/social information. Here’s a couple of interesting bits from OkTrends which is Ok Cupid’s blog that charts all sorts of data from their online dating service.
We analyzed over 500,000 first contacts on our dating site, OkCupid. Our program looked at keywords and phrases, how they affected reply rates, and what trends were statistically significant. The result: a set of rules for what you should and shouldn’t say when introducing yourself online.
I think that set is pretty true and just kind of amusing. Having played the online dating game a bit myself (Did you know Angelo & I actually met through Craigslist?) it’s funny how many people actually do write first messages that are filled with nothing but netspeak and other poorly spelled words. Also, I can understand why zombies, vegetarians, and metal bands are up there but who knew physics could be so sexy? There’s a bunch more keyword comparisons in the original post.
This other set is a little more interesting from a race & gender perspective.
Throughout this post, yellowish colors are short-hand for “neutral” and red and green indicate “strong preference.”
So according to this people of all races are generally of average compatibility with everyone else. That sounds good. But let’s look at how people actually respond to race:
So the first obvious overall trend is that if you’re a guy writing to a girl you’re not very likely to get a reply. But if you’re a girl writing to a guy, you’re chances are pretty good. But it seems that if you’re a white guy you have slightly better chances at getting a reply across the board. It also seems that Black & Native American women are the most open minded about guys when it comes to race. But unfortunately Black women have the hardest time getting a response from guys. Also interesting is that while white guys are more likely to get a reply they’re also least likely to send a reply. The other thing that’s kind of interesting is that Asian women & white women reply to race similarly and are replied to similarly. And if you happen to be a middle eastern woman you have it pretty good across the board right now.