Whisper it: The OkTrends blog takes the data from OkCupid and crunches it into tips for online daters. |
More people have ventured into the potentially hazardous waters of online dating than would care to admit - and some of their adventures have been truly hair-raising. Now a group of former Harvard math majors are crunching the data to reveal the secret tips of the online dater, displaying them in - naturally - graph form. Men, for example, should show off their six pack if they have one - but only if they're young. Meanwhile women should always flirt with the camera - but men should look aloof. The OkTrends blog found at dating website OkCupid have been charting various trends - such as how long relationships last among Twitter users - since 2009. One of the blog's tips is to ask your date if they've ever wanted to run away to sea, whether they enjoyed the Blair Witch Project, or their past travel experiences. The reasoning, the bloggers explained, was that according to the thousands of multiple choice 'match questions' answered by OkCupid's seven million users, couples who met on the site agreed most often on three questions in particular: 'Do you like horror movies?', 'Have you ever travelled around another country alone?', and 'Wouldn't it be fun to chuck it all and go live on a sailboat?' Experts told the LATimes that these types of questions are measuring the 'openness to experience' or the O Factor. 'People who seek stimulation and adventure... they'd be less likely to establish and comfortably maintain a relationship with very traditional, conservative, unimaginative, risk-avoidant individuals,' said Western Carolina psychology department head David McCord. Women were also told to flirty with the camera for their profile photo. If they made what OkCupid called 'flirty-face', they received on average 1.5 additional messages per month. That's because a woman's smile is well-documented as a signal of sexual interest. 'Flirty smiles trigger what we call men's sexual over-perception bias,' Dr Buss said. Only, however, for women. Men were ordered to be aloof on camera. When they did so, they had a roughly 90 per cent success rate with their emails than otherwise. The data also showed that women who took their 'flirty-face' to the next level by showing a bit of cleavage had better results - vastly better results as they got older. For men, the inverse is true. Male online daters should show off their six packs in their profile pictures, but only if they are young. (Read by Renee Haines. Renee Haines is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
很多人会大胆尝试网上约会这一存在潜在危险的事情而不愿承认,而且其中一些人的网上约会经历还相当耸人听闻。 目前一组曾经就读哈佛大学数学专业的研究人员正在分析数据,试图揭示网上约会的诀窍,并用图像的形式自然地展现出来。 例如,男性如果有腹肌的话就应该展示出来,不过前提是他们是年轻男性。而女性则应该在镜头前作出挑逗的表情,但男性应该看起来冷漠些。 约会网站OkCupid的OkTrends博客自2009年以来一直在跟踪各种约会趋势,例如Twitter用户之间的恋情持续多久。 该博客的建议之一就是问你的约会对象想不想去海边,或觉得电影《女巫布莱尔》好不好看,或者问他们以往的旅游经历。 博主解释原因时说,从向OkCupid的700万用户发出的数千份多选题的答复来看,那些在网上相遇的情侣提得最多的三个问题是“你喜欢恐怖电影吗?”“你曾经独自到另一个国家旅游吗?”还有“如果抛下一切到帆船上生活,岂不是很有趣?” 专家告诉《洛杉矶时报》说,这种问题衡量的是“经验开放性”或人格的开放性。 西卡罗莱纳大学心理系主任戴维•麦科德说:“那些寻求刺激和冒险的人不大可能和十分传统、保守、缺乏想象力、不愿冒险的人确立并轻松地维持恋情关系。” 女性收到的建议则是在拍摄个人资料照片时作出挑逗的表情。如果她们作出OkCupid所谓的“挑逗表情”,她们平均每月收到的约会信息会多出1.5条。 这是因为有充分的证据证明,女性的笑容预示着性趣。布斯博士说:“挑逗的笑诱发了所谓的男性对于性的感知偏见。” 不过挑逗的笑容只对女性有效。男性得到的建议则是在镜头前表现得冷漠。如果他们做出这种表情,他们发出的约会电邮的成功率将达到90%左右。 数据还显示,做出“挑逗表情”的女性如果再露出一点乳沟,效果会更好,尤其是那些年纪更大的女性,这么做会大大加分。对于男性而言,则正好相反。网上约会的男性在个人资料的照片上应该展示自己的腹肌,但前提是他们是年轻男性。 相关阅读 (中国日报网英语点津 陈丹妮 编辑:冯明惠) |
Vocabulary: hair-raising: extremely frightening but often exciting(使人毛发直立的;惊险的) crunch: to deal with large amounts of data very quickly (快速大量地)处理信息 six pack: stomach muscles that are very strong and that you can see clearly across somebody's stomach(块块隆起的腹肌) aloof: not friendly or interested in other people(冷漠;冷淡) chart: to record or follow the progress or development of somebody/something 记录,跟踪(进展或发展) chuck: to throw something carelessly or without much thought (随便或贸然地)扔,抛 O Factor: 心理学上的开放性因素,包含“开放,创造性,思路新”等人格特质。 well-documented: 证据充分的;有大量文件证明的 cleavage: the space between a woman's breasts that can be seen above a dress that does not completely cover them (妇女穿低胸服时露出的)乳沟 |