Sly Bald Guys' Blog

If you've read Freakonomics, then you've probably read the section (pages 80 to 84) on online dating. I recently found a summary of the section that I though I'd share with you guys.

Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner is a rather amazing book in which the authors apply analytic techniques to all kinds of questions that economists don't usually study. For example, they show that Sumo wrestlers throw matches to manipulate the standings. And that elementary education teachers cheat for their students to raise
scores on standardized tests.

So, what does this have to do with Internet dating? Well, Levitt and Dubner took data from a dating site and answered the age-old question of what attracts women to men and vice versa -- or at least what features of an Internet dating ad attract the most email in response.


Before reading on, try to guess what features in a man's ad are most likely to attract women to respond.

Got your guess?

OK, here is what they found:

1. Man is looking for a long term relationship.
2. Man is rich.
3. Man is tall.

So if you are Kareem Abdul Jabar looking to marry then you're golden. But if you're short, poor, and looking for casual sex then you may be lonely.

Now, what attracts a man to a woman.

Got your guess?

OK, here is what Levitt and Dubner found:

1. Woman is looking for casual sex.
2. Woman is thin.
3. Woman is blond.

So, if you are Evilicious Blond looking for a one-night stand then your going to see a lot of hits!

It's relatively easy to become blond. And it's relatively easy to lie about your income and not get
caught (as long as you don't exaggerate too much). The other variables are a bit harder to control...

Some other notes. For men weight was almost irrelevant. For women, it was bad to be really poor or really rich (presumably men find rich women threatening). For men, being balding was bad but having a shaved head was good. Right on!

Oh, and one last thing. You can't get away with not including a picture. Levitt and Dubner write "A low-income, poorly educated, unhappily employed, not-very-attractive, slightly overweight, and balding man who posts his photo stands a better chance of gleaming some emails than a man who says he makes $200,000 and is deadly handsome but doesn't post a photo."