In this analysis of profiles and messaging behavior on a major online dating service [probably OKCupid], we find that, consistent with predictions of evolutionary psychology, women as compared to men state more restrictive preferences for their ideal date.
Furthermore, women contact and reply to others more selectively than men.
Additionally, we identify connections among messaging behavior, textual self-descriptions in dating profiles, and relationship-relevant traits such as neuroticism.
…we included the Ten-Item Personality Inventory, a short measure of the Big 5 personality traits;16 the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised instrument, which assesses adult attachment style;15 and a general trust and caution scale developed by Yamagishi.33
…7. Discussion: Women are pickier than men in online dating: their preferences for age and ethnicity are stricter than men’s, and they initiate contact and reply to others at a lower rate than men. Men cast a wider net, stating fewer and less restrictive preferences for their ideal date, contacting a relatively large number of women, and discriminating less in their replies. These findings align with the long-substantiated predictions of evolutionary psychology, though our research was not intended as a test of evolutionary theory. In our view, the modal tendencies described by this tradition provide useful direction, but evolutionary arguments are not the only explanation for these phenomena.8 We also found evidence for positive assortment on ethnicity—both men and women contacted people of the same ethnicity more often than chance would predict—and on popularity, a proxy for attractiveness, in that women replied more often to men whose popularity was close to their own. Furthermore, we demonstrated a connection between the use of word categories in self-descriptive text and relationship-relevant psychosocial constructs such as attachment style, personality traits, and general trust and caution. Although the word categories themselves were not associated with contact and reply behavior, some of the psychosocial constructs were correlated with these behaviors. Taken together, these findings suggest a promising future direction: the automated estimation of relationship-relevant qualities of a person solely from self-descriptions.
7.1. Implications for daters and designers: For online daters seeking to improve their odds of finding a mate, the message is clear: choose wisely and, if possible, be female.