After analyzing more than 500,000 first contacts on their dating site, OkCupid shortlisted certain characteristics that sought quicker and more positive replies. Among the six thumb rules that OkCupid advises online daters to follow in order to find a partner, one is to consider becoming an atheist.
According to the website’s assessment, atheists have the highest possibilities of eliciting a positive response from potential partners, compared to all other religions in the world. Reportedly, they received a reply rate of 56 percent, which implies that daters should either give up on religion or open up to the idea of dating people who reject the belief of existence of gods. The religious identities that appeared a significant number of times included Atheism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam with some people also listing Allah, Jesus and God as their religions.
The online dating site also urged its users to come across as literate by using good grammar, proper punctuations and avoiding spelling mistakes. In fact, they were specifically asked to refrain from using acronyms and other forms of internet jargon like ur, wtf and tgif. The third kind of people who emerged victorious were those who avoided giving outright physical compliments. While those desperate to date think that using words like beautiful, gorgeous and sexy will land them an attractive partner, the truth is that most stunners do not care for such overused adjectives. On the other hand, subtler adjectives like pretty or cute seemed to go a long way in helping people land a date.
Using unusual greetings like yo, howdy, hola and what’s up also seemed to score better than those who said the usual hi, hey and hello instead. However, those who went overboard with incorrect versions of unusual greetings like holla didn’t do so well either. OkCupid also suggests that it is a good idea to talk about specific interests while looking for a date. This offers both parties the opportunity to engage in conversation and see where it goes thereafter. In case, your interests do not match with those of the other person, you will know sooner than later that it is best to move on.
For men, it also worked to appear self-effacing. Contrary to how men are advised to appear by other men, a little bit of hemming and hawing seemed to work a lot better online. However, while effacing himself, a guy must also be particular not to come across as a wimp.
