2 Girls, 1 Online Profile

Just in time for Valentine' Day!!

Since it's no longer as simple as asking A/S/L, I figured I could help further prove the obvious when it comes to online dating by a conducting sociological experiment and gather my own primary research!

The premise involved setting up two nearly identical online profiles for two hypothetical women using a popular dating website. Answers to the ‘about me’ questions were written exactly the same. The two ladies were painted as the same music-loving, multi-ethnic, straight, single tomboy who just moved to town for a new job…because, well, I don’t know anything about women and those details seemed desirable to me!

So, here’s the catch. With the girls’ hobbies, job, location, intent and personality one of the same, I enacted one small difference to make each profile distinct…photos.

After scouring Google images, I found two candidates to become the faces for Girl A and Girl B. Both are beautifully exotic with defined features. But one would be considered much “hotter” by the current mainstream, pop culture senses.

(Note: If you’re one of the real women behind these pictures, know your image was used for the good of science!! And all the profiles and pics have long been deleted.)

Next, I entered both women into the pool of eligible candidates where men searching could view their profiles and send messages. The girls were active on the site for nearly a two week period. I also moved the girls around the upper Midwest to get a broader geographic consensus. So one day they were from Sioux City, Sioux Falls the next.

Contacts came almost immediately.

Within the first 30 hours, Girl A received 43 messages and 67 ‘likes’ in addition to 251 profile visitors. She accumulated another 72 messages and 106 ‘likes’ over the next twelve days. This is Girl A on the left.

Meanwhile, Girl B received 10 messages, 11 ‘likes’ and was visited 78 times in her first 32 hours online. 21 more messages and 26 more ‘likes’ rolled in over the next twelve days. Here is Girl B on the right.

I could have ended the study right there, correctly demonstrating my hypothesis and adding more evidence to the school that men pay more attention to women defined by the narrow conventions of beauty. But I decided to actually find out what comprised all the messages to these ladies.

Girl A was bombarded with stupid pick-up lines and compliments. There were also lots of questions regarding aspects of her profile and some downright rude and really forward propositions.

Now for your reading pleasure, here are some of the more hilarious and weird messages! All [SIC] - with some of the grammar and spelling making me [SIC].

“well i would like to get to know and because hey is so common lets start it out by saying salutations and greetings my name is Ben i have looked at your profile and thought you looked Nifty and would love to get to know you better and see if we can develop a friendship and maybe something more”

Run-on much? But now I know my problem; I’ve never called a girl ‘nifty’, or even ‘keen’ for that matter. Golly.

“WOW, You are so sexy and gorgeous! How's it going? I wish we lived closer, but I'm visiting the area in the next month or so=] I'd LOVE to send you some "more revealing" pictures of me if you are interested;)?”

Oh, you! Please keep your… umm, shoes on.

“Hi Honey, my name is [[XX]]. I think you are beautiful! This isn't a unique way to hit on you, I admit. This does not concern me. What is concerning is the possibility of not saying anything and passing you by, even if its online.”

Some faith in humanity restored! I’m stealing that one. The Pharcyde couldn’t pass by that chivalry either.

“Would you like to go for a breakfast? You could even go to a breakfast with relatives that you do not like. So it's a non official date . What do you say?”

Negotiation master here. What if she likes all her relatives, can we add an annoying co-worker to be named later to the trade?

“I hope you don't mind me asking, I promise I won't stalk you or anything. I just thought it was cool that you moved to Sioux City for a job, and that it isn't far from where I am!”

In the same vein as starting a sentence, ‘I’m not racist but…’ this fella sure showed his hand. Plus, he didn’t even ask a question.

“What are your thoughts on mayonnaise? Ask me why I asked that question my answer may surprise you.”

Ummm….well, we all loved Patty Mayonnaise.

All the while Girl A was drawing all sorts of extreme responses from various meatheads, nice guys, would-be comedians, creeps and weirdos, Girl B drew lukewarm messages from the none-too-chatty.

Only one measly message actually alluded to info from her profile. The run-of-the-mill rest included:

“Hi there”
“hi there, how is your day going?”
“Hey beautiful what'd up”
“How are you”
“Hey do you wanna talk”
“wow hi. you got awesome eyes”
“Hey pretty lady :) How's your week going?”

Don’t over exert yourself there, dudes.

To wrap this pointless exercise up, we can surmise that many males of the species will put in the effort, as bizarre as it may be, to enchant or attract the “pretty girl” while maybe offering a fleeting ‘hello’ to the “plain girl”. But in [fake] actuality, the two girls had the exact same personality.

So treat 'em right and uhhh, Girl Power?!?