Ok so... I'm not purposly trying to advertise any other websites. I just thought this information was interesting for online potential daters

Want to get an online date? Keep your messages short.

For men, whites are the most likely to get a response online; Indians the least likely. Among women, Middle Easterners garner the most responses; black women the fewest

Those are among the not-always-politically-correct findings unearthed by the statisticians at OkCupid, a free online dating site started by a group of Harvard graduates armed with math degrees.

The 5-year-old site boasts 1 million active users -- comparable to Match.com and eHarmony, two services that require paid subscriptions. Like Match.com, OkCupid users can look at any profile they want -- something eHarmony doesn't allow subscribers to do. Like eHarmony, OkCupid's workhorse is a statistical algorithm driven by how users respond to a range of personal, political and religious questions. But unlike eHarmony, which bases questions on the founders' research, OkCupid takes the participatory approach adopted by YouTube and other Web 2.0 sites. Almost all of the questions are submitted by other users, who wind up answering an average of 233 of them.

OkCupid also takes an extra step the other sites don't: sharing information about users' online dating behavior. Earlier this year, the site created a blog to post research, drawing on data from the site, a la Google. Here's a sampling of what the numbers show so far.





Keep Messages Short
The average guy on OkCupid gets one response for about every five messages he sends to different women. Factor in the effort it takes to tailor a message to a specific profile, and brevity is more efficient in landing a date. OkCupid's research suggests that the optimal message length for a guy is 200 characters, or roughly one minute of typing.

For women, it doesn't matter. They get a 40 percent response rate no matter how much they type. Why? The company believes that guys -- not surprisingly -- put much more emphasis on a woman's picture. A woman doesn't need to worry as much about what she says, just that she gets on her potential date's radar. So why waste time? OkCupid recommends women write even shorter messages of about 50 characters when initiating contact.

Interestingly, when looking at same-sex contacts, women-to-women messaging patterns resemble men-to-women behavior, while men-to-men patterns are more consistent with women-to-men message behavior.


Not All E-mail Is Equal
OkCupid analyzed about 500,000 first-contact messages and found these to be among the best strategies for getting a response:

-- Be specific. Mention something in the profile of the person being contacted

-- Avoid net-speak like "ur," "r u," "B4," etc.

-- Don't compliment physical characteristics.

-- Act modest, especially men.


Your Race Matters
The numbers also show that attraction isn't color-blind. To wit:

-- Among males, white guys get the most frequent responses (29 percent of the time) and are least likely to respond (40 percent).

-- Indian men have the worst luck, getting responses only 20 percent of the time.

-- Among females, black women are the most likely to write back to a guy (34 percent) but the least likely to get a response if they initiate contact (34 percent).

-- Middle Eastern women get responses almost half the time, the most of any ethnicity. And even though white guys are pickiest about whom they write back to, they're most likely to respond to Middle Eastern women (47 percent of the time versus an overall response rate of 40 percent).

-- Pretty much across the board, whites are viewed as the most attractive group. This is how different ethnicities answered the following question: "Not to be racist but which ethnicity do you find to be most attractive?"


Zubin Jelveh for Sphere

Your Religion (or Lack Thereof) Matters, Too
Using the word "atheist" actually improves the chances of getting a response; invoking "god" leads to worse-than-average response rates.


-- Agnostics, atheists and Jews of both sexes have the highest match percentages across the site, i.e., they're most likely to find someone they're compatible with. Muslim men and women and Hindu men are the least compatible groups. Christians are in the middle of the pack.

-- Jewish men are more compatible than Muslim men with Muslim women.


Some Other Interesting Results
Europeans are more open than Americans to acting out a rape fantasy with a partner. Within the U.S., Wyoming (of all places) and Nevada are the kinkiest states.

-- West-coasters enjoy casual sex most; Midwesterners the least.

-- People living in warmer states report higher levels of self-confidence.

-- Zodiac signs have no bearing on compatibility.

Interesting

Wow who did that study? Maybe it is true but, I am not hurting for responses or anything else on these sites...except that one guy who will be mine for a long time.

Some website with people from Harvard lol you're a beautiful woman. I doubt you're hurting for any responses

Wow, that's quite interesting. I do think that many of the statistics actually participate in others.

ie people with english as a second language usually don't do as well in communication with english speakers.

on another note, this site said my chances are higher with a picture....

lol... I think the data is still skewed! too many variables are being left out! I think the real question is does it matter? It's such an individual effort i think that stats don't really mean a thing. But the race thing did not fit my fancy at all!

wow indigohammers make me hot! oops your a guy hammer sorry!

If it was a lady hammer it would be pink!!!

Thank you! You're a beauty too and I enjoy your topics.

interesting Jill

Although it would drive me bonkers to do statics on dating sites lol

Statistics are funny...For example, a finding that Wyoming is one of the "kinkiest" states.

But, there are only 67 people there right? And a lot of sheep!

Not this white guy, I barely ever get a response!

well that sure sounds kinky to me