Making the first move on a dating app or dating site is always a bit of a headache, whether you're on Tinder, Grindr or even Facebook Dating. Should you start with a compliment about their body? Try to find things you both have in common? Or foolishly choose the simple and traditional ‘Hi, how are you?’
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That’s what the Canadian dating site Plenty of Fish wanted to find out with a survey they carried out with 1,100 former and now married members of the site, who met their other halves online.
Which pick-up line would you go for in online dating?
The first surprising observation from this study was that 39.63% of the women involved said that they were the ones who had made the first move, thus pushing the boat out about the classic misconceptions surrounding seduction techniques. But when it was the men who had initiated the conversation, they were rarely original.
So, the strategy that seemed to work the best according to the results of this study, that was picked up by Men’s Health, was to make a remark about a specific detail from the other person’s profile in order to spark interest. A technique which worked for 16.59% of the people in the survey.
Just behind this was the traditional ‘Hi, how are you?’ which against all odds, led 14.75% of participants to the aisle. Then came personal questions (8.68%) and compliments on their profile picture (7.71%). Finally, immediately jumping to possible mutual interests worked for 7.62% of people.
Making jokes, a method to avoid
On the contrary, Plenty of Fish revealed that making a little joke or telling a funny story isn’t actually as effective a technique as you might believe: only 2.89% of people in the survey ended up marrying someone who initiated their conversation in this way.
But if you really want to unlock all the secrets of dating apps and become a real Casanova 2.0, you should know that Tinder has recently revealed facts about their algorithm, giving you a few more hints and tips on how to optimise your chances of meeting someone… And now on Tinder, you can even skip the awkward small talk and jump straight into a video chat! Might make things less awkward... or not!
To the keyboards! Check out the video above to find out more!