Scientists from Barts, the London School of Medicine, and The University of North Texas have discovered the secret to the perfect online dating profile.
It’s a breakthrough, they say, that will have would-be lovers swiping right and boosting their odds of moving a romance from awkward Internet messaging to real-life date nights.
In a meta-analysis of 86 psychology, sociology, computer, and behavioral studies, they found answers to the questions that leave online daters paralyzed at their keyboards or searching for the perfect selfie. With a list of eerily specific guidelines—covering everything from the perfect screen name to the wording of that first message—science has the looking for love covered.
And for those who judge breakthroughs in online dating insignificant in the annals of scientific discovery, even Carl Sagan knows that “For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”
The Perfect Handle
Men are simple creatures, the science suggests, so obvious screen names are the most effective. Men gravitate towards positive handles—this isn’t the place for self-deprecation—that intimate the person on the other side of the screen is sexy (stuff like “Blondie” and “Cutie”). Meanwhile, women prefer a screen name that makes its owner sounds smart (“MadeUpOfStarStuff,” perhaps?).
Interestingly enough, the letters that make up your screen name may be even more important than the words they form. Several measures of success, like educational achievement and income, are associated with names that start earlier in the alphabet, according to the study.