From: http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2009/09/14/online-dating-advice-exactly-what-to-say-in-a-first-message/
Ok, here’s the experiment. We analyzed over 500,000 first contacts on our dating site,
OkCupid. Our program looked at keywords and phrases, how they affected reply rates, and what trends were statistically significant. The result: a set of rules for what you should and shouldn’t say when introducing yourself online. Let’s go:
Netspeak, bad grammar, and bad spelling are huge turn-offs. Our negative correlation list is a fool’s lexicon:
ur,
u,
wat,
wont, and so on. These all make a terrible first impression. In fact, if you count
hit (and we do!) the worst 6 words you can use in a first message are all stupid slang.
Language like this is such a strong deal-breaker that correctly written but otherwise workaday words like
don’t and
won’t have nicely above average response rates (
36% and
37%, respectively).
Interesting exceptions to the “no netspeak” rule are expressions of amusement.
haha (
45% reply rate) and
lol (
41%) both turned out to be quite good for the sender. This makes a certain sense: people like a sense of humor, and you need to be casual to convey genuine laughter.
hehe was also a successful word, but much less so (
33%). Scientifically, this is because it’s a little evil sounding.
So, in short, it’s okay to laugh, but keep the rest of your message grammatical and punctuated.
Although the data shows this advice holds true for both sexes, it’s mostly directed at guys, because they are way more likely to talk about looks. You might think that words like
gorgeous,
beautiful, and
sexy are nice things to say to someone, but no one wants to hear them. As we all know, people normally like compliments, but when they’re used as pick-up lines, before you’ve even met in person, they inevitably feel…ew. Besides, when you tell a woman she’s beautiful, chances are you’re not.
On the other hand, more general compliments seem to work well:
The word
pretty is a perfect case study for our point. As an adjective, it’s a physical compliment, but as an adverb (as in, “I’m pretty good at sports.”) it’s is just another word.
When used as an adverb it actually does very well (a phenomenon we’ll examine in detail below), but as
pretty’s uses become more clearly about looks, reply rates decline sharply.
You’re pretty and
your pretty are phrases that could go either way (physical or non-). But
very pretty is almost always used to describe the way something or someone looks, and you can see how that works out.
We took a close look at salutations. After all, the way you choose to start your initial message to someone is the “first impression of your first impression.” The results surprised us:
The top three most popular ways to say “hello” were all actually bad beginnings. Even the slangy
holla and
yo perform better, bucking the general “be literate” rule. In fact, it’s smarter to use no traditional salutation at all (which earns you the reply rate of
27%) and just dive into whatever you have to say than to start with
hi. I’m not sure why this is: maybe the ubiquity of the most popular openings means people are more likely to just stop reading when they see them.
The more informal standard greetings:
how’s it going,
what’s up, and
howdy all did very well. Maybe they set a more casual tone that people prefer, though I have to say,
You had me at ‘what’s up’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.
Obviously, all successful OkCupid relationships outgrow our in-site messaging feature. But an offer to chat or of an email address right off the bat is a sure turn off. One of the things online dating has going for it is its relative anonymity, and if you start chipping away at that too early, you’ll scare the other person off.
Also, don’t ask for or give away a
cell number (
10%). I thought that was a no-brainer.
There are many words on the effective end of our list like
zombie,
band,
tattoo,
literature,
studying,
vegetarian (yes!), and
metal (double yes!) that are all clearly referencing something important to the sender, the recipient, or, ideally, both. Talking about specific things that interest you or that you might have in common with someone is a time-honored way to make a connection, and we have proof here that it works. We’re presenting just a smattering: in fact every “niche” word that we have significant data on has a positive effect on messaging.
Even more effective are phrases that engage the reader’s own interests, or show you’ve read their profile:
Awkward,
sorry,
apologize,
kinda, and
probably all made male messages more successful, yet none of them except
sorry affects female messages. As we mentioned before,
pretty, no doubt because of its adverbial meaning of “to a fair degree; moderately” also helps male messages. A lot of real-world dating advice tells men to be
more confident, but apparently hemming and hawing a little works well online.
It could be that appearing unsure makes the writer seem more vulnerable and less threatening. It could be that women like guys who write mumbly. But either way: men should be careful not to let the appearance of vulnerability become the appearance of sweaty desperation:
please is on the negative list (
22% reply rate), and in fact it is the
only word that is actually worse for you than its netspeak equivalent (
pls,
23%)!
Mentioning your religion helps you, but, paradoxically, it helps you most if you have no religion. We know that’s going to piss a lot of people off, and we’re more or less tongue-in-cheek with this advice, but it’s what the numbers say.
These are the religious terms that appeared a statistically significant number of times.
Atheist actually showed up surprisingly often (342 times per 10,000 messages, second only to 552 mentions of
christian and ahead of 278 for
jewish and 142 for
muslim).
Though very few people actually do it, invoking the sky-breaking thunderbolts of
zeus does help a person get noticed (reply rate
56%), but maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise on a site that is itself named for a member of the Classical pantheon. So if you can’t bring yourself to deny the deity, consider opening yourself up to a whole wacky bunch of them. But ideally you should just disbelieve the whole thing. It can help your love life, and, besides, if there really was a god, wouldn’t first messages
always get a reply?
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