A Social Experiment

So I ran this experiment on OK Cupid. I created two profiles: one real, with my pic and information that most accurately represents me. It was thoughtful, articulate and balanced. I don't consider myself to be very handsome, but nor am I an eyesore. 

I created the other profile with someone else's photo and a lazy description of this guy with at least 2 not so subtle hints that he's not looking for anything serious or long-term. As for the questions, I gave similar responses on both profiles. Now this fake profile contained pics of some random guy in Israel who had Middle-Eastern looks, so he's likely a mizrahi. I thought he was good-looking, but not necessarily a hottie, in a blue-collared way (yes, I'm a snob, I suppose). He didn't look terribly educated, sophisticated or smart. And I decided to make him a lawyer. I also decided to make him a few years younger: around 38 years. And the results...

1. The fake profile got an average of 140 visitors a week without my having to visit any woman's profile first, the real one got 20 a week, and even that only after visiting tons of profiles and writing to many of them.

2. Over two dozen women initiated conversation with the fake profile in a span of 2 weeks. (And most of them were short emails like 'Hi!' or 'How are you?'. This brings me to one of my pet peeves that women expect men to write thoughtful emails to them, but when they initiate conversation, they're no better than the men they're supposedly annoyed with.) As for my real profile, in a span of 2-3 months maybe 1 woman initiated conversation with me.

3. I didn't respond to most women who contacted me on the fake profile. What was the point of engaging them in a conversation since I wasn't going to meet them? But when I did reply, these women flirted in a way no woman has ever flirted with me on my real profile. Some were very willing to talk about sex and share their fantasies, something that happens very rarely with my real profile.

4. Over 60 women rated the fake profile highly in a span of a couple of weeks, compared to less than 6 in a span of 2-3 months on the real profile. Given the number of women who rated the fake profile highly, I received an email from OKC stating that I was one of the hottest guys around, and hence the site would allow me to view more attractive profiles of women. So OKC acknowledges that only good-looking people get to see profiles of other good-looking people. I don't find this annoying; just interesting.

I'll leave it to you to come to your own conclusions. This is not meant to bash women. On the contrary, I like women. But this experiment simply confirms for me the many hypocrisies and myths women perpetuate when it comes to dating. Which is why, the women I usually get along with best are ones who keep it real, ones who expect to be treated as respectable people, not as princesses. 

This is also not to state that men don't have issues. They have many, and I've referred to some of them in my other blog entries, but that's another topic, one that women have written ad nauseum about.