- Online daters are most likely to contact people who share their education level
- But researchers have found that they’re less fussy about this as they get older
- They analyzed the dating actions of more than 41,000 Australians aged 18-80
- Older women in particular are more likely to contact potential partners who are less educated than themselves, but younger men fall into this category too
Cecile Borkhataria For Dailymail.com
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Most online daters prefer to contact people with the same level of education as them, but a new study suggests that as people grow older they become less picky about it.
Researchers based at Queensland’s University of Technology, Australia, analyzed the online dating behaviors of 41,000 Australians aged between 18 and 80.
The researchers said that humans usually look for similar characteristics and traits in a partner in areas such as age, attractiveness and culture, however, the internet has changed this process.
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Researchers based at Queensland’s University of Technology, Australia, analyzed the online dating behaviors of 41,000 Australians aged between 18 and 80
The researchers analyzed the behaviors of people using the online dating website ‘RSVP’ during a four month period in 2016.
Mr Stephen Whyte, a behavioural economist and co-author of the study, said: ‘Selecting a mate can be one of the largest psychological and economic decisions a person can make and has long been the subject of social science research across a range of disciplines.
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‘The internet has completely changed how people choose dating partners to find love.
‘Our study is a step towards understanding how technology is impacting on mate choice decisions based on education.
‘Cyber dating permits multiple partner choices in real time, which allows for a significantly greater available choice of potential mates.
‘Older women in particular have a greater likelihood of contacting potential partners who are less educated than themselves but conversely, younger males fall into this category as well,’ said Mr Whyte, a behavioural economist and co-author of the study
THE WORDS THAT WILL DOUBLE YOUR DATING CHANCES
Research carried out by dating website eHarmony found that using certain words in a dating profile has the potential to double the amount of communication received from potential partners.
Men want ‘ambitious’ women, while women want ‘intelligent’ men – but ‘funny’ is a turn-off in the new lexicon of love, claims a new study.
The findings revealed that ‘ambitious’, ‘perceptive, ‘sweet’, ‘hard working’ and ‘thoughtful’ are the descriptions most likely to attract male attention online.
The research also found that the dating buzz words have changed in the last two years.
While the description ‘sweet’ would attract the most male attention for women in 2014, it’s now been pushed into third place, with ‘ambitious’ taking the top spot.
Yet for men the word ‘ambitious’ had the opposite impact, falling from the second most popular word in 2014 to only 10th today.
Instead, women were more receptive to the words ‘perceptive’ ‘spontaneous’ and ‘outgoing’ than they were two years ago. Overall, the word ‘physically fit’ remains the biggest turn on for women.
‘This increased pool means greater opportunity for selection of partners with lower, similar or even higher levels of certain characteristics.
‘This includes education, which is commonly used in human mating behaviour as a proxy for resources and future provision as it can represent economic advantages.’
There was a difference in the way in which men and women looked at education levels in potential partners, and also how this changed depending on the life stage of the participants.
‘The more educated cohort tends to care less about matching the same level of education as they get older,’ Mr Whyte explained.
‘Older women in particular have a greater likelihood of contacting potential partners who are less educated than themselves but conversely, younger males fall into this category as well.’
Mr Whyte said that while online dating is a growing industry and its appeal lies in its ability to have created a more efficient and successful mechanism for finding and securing both short-term and long-term romantic relationships, more research is needed into the sector.
‘More research is needed though so that we can have a better understanding of the impacts of cyber-dating on individuals and relationships as well as the psychology employed by people when using the internet to maximise their educational preference in a mate,’ he said.
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