Women, on finding “the one”
Summertime is historically mating season, and a lot of women are out to meet “the one”.
Yahoo! Personals and TheKnot.com recently conducted a survey of more than 9,500 U.S. women to find out about how they met “the one.” They polled them on everything from how similar they were to their mate in some fundamental areas (turns out to be very similar!) to the kinds of things that matter most (closeness to family came in first; income last).
They also analyzed responses based on whether people met their mate online vs. offline and saw an interesting trend emerge. The online daters reached “relationship milestones” much more quickly than those who met offline!
Finding “The One” – Perception vs. Reality
- When asked, how did you meet your significant other, the most frequent response was “through friends,” followed by “school,” “work” or “an online dating site.” Among the least cited responses were “at a bar” or “at church.”
- When asked how you expected to meet your significant other, responses varied from the reality, with the largest majority of respondents saying they expected to meet through a “casual encounter.”
Do Opposites Attract?
- When asked, how similar they were to their significant other in some fundamental areas, respondents overwhelming said they were similar in all but one area – their profession. The following percentages represent those who said they were “very similar” or “similar” with their significant other in each of the categories.
o Religion – 84%
o Politics – 85%
o Age – 89%
o Income – 70%
o Ethnicity – 87%
o Profession – 38%
o Work/life habit – 83%
o Social life – 90%
o Family orientation/closeness – 85%
What Matters Most
- When asked, which of the following characteristics was most important when searching for your significant other, respondents ranked “family orientation/ closeness” as the most important and “income” as the least important. The following percentages represent how respondents ranked each characteristic in order of importance.
o Family orientation/closeness – 44%
o Religion – 17%
o Social life – 16%
o Work life habit – 11%
o Age – 5%
o Ethnicity – 3%
o Profession – 2%
o Politics – 1%
o Income – 1%
Relationship Stages – Meeting Online vs. Offline
- When comparing respondents who met online with the ones who met their significant other offline, an interesting trend emerged. The online daters reached “relationship milestones” more quickly than those who met offline.
o Initial Dating – Online daters began dating more quickly than offline daters, with 77% saying they started dating within the first four weeks of meeting each other, compared to 50% of offline daters.
o Feeling Chemistry – More than half (55%) of all respondents said they felt chemistry with their significant other in the first two weeks. But, 30% of those who met offline said it took between “six months” and “two or more years” to feel chemistry, compared with only 5% of online daters, who were more likely to feel chemistry earlier on.
o Understanding Interests – Online daters (60%) said they had a better understanding of their significant other in the first four weeks of dating than offline daters (41%).
o Getting Exclusive – Online daters got exclusive more quickly than offline daters – 80% compared with 56% in the first three months, or 52% vs. 32% in the first month, respectively.
o Getting Family “Buy-In” – 45% of online daters got “buy-in” within three months of dating; whereas only 31% of offline daters did.
o Engagement – Online daters got engaged more quickly – more than two-thirds (70%) of online daters were engaged in less than two years, whereas more than half (55%) of offline daters got engaged after more than two years.
o Marriage – Online daters married more quickly – 38% were married within two years of engagement, while 62% of offline daters married after more than two years of being engaged.
Do You Believe in Magic?
- Love at First Sight – Two-thirds (64%) of all respondents said they didn’t experience love at first sight, with only one-third (36%) saying they were hit with Cupid’s arrow.
- Leaving it to Fate – An overwhelming 78% of people said they felt like they were fated for their significant other; 22% said it was just “pure chance.”
- First Kiss – Slightly more than half (54%) said they kissed on their first date.
- Separate Quarters? – A majority of respondents (70%) said they will live with their significant other before getting married.
Fun fact! Aly Walansky wrote this story just for you on April 25th, 2008 |
April 26th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Very interesting article - This study seems to suggest that online dating sites might not be such a bad avenue to explore if one is interested in finding a serious dating partner in a reasonably short (compared to offline-dating) amount of time.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:56 am
this is really interesting, and i agree with rhonda - it’s like the people who meet online are going online specifically for that purpose. so automatically that weeds out the chance that your partner is just looking for mr./ms. right-now. plus, with online dating you spend a lot of non-dating time weeding out people you don’t really gel with. the one time i tried it it was a disappointment, and he was better on ‘paper’ and in-theory than he was in real life, so i didn’t try again. but i guess with online, it’s a more controlled environment, so you get to decide what part of you the person sees.
April 30th, 2008 at 1:42 am
it is funny topic. i think one point is negected. when women search for partners, they usually consider age gap. for exaple, a site, SugarmommyMeet.com, is designed to cater to rich women seeking young and charming men.