In the beginning of the semester, I went through an online dating obsession. I was fascinated by the vast worlds of Tinder, Bumble, Plenty-of-Fish, and other online dating apps. However, I wanted to use these apps for “science”: to utilize the untapped span of people that you can test.
Thus, I came up with The Tinder Test, where I utilized a group of individuals to test a common theory in an attempt to find real evidence or answers.
The theory I tested was the age-old question of blondes versus brunettes: who’s preferred and, in this case, who would get more swipes.
I tried to eliminate any outliers in the experiment, but it’s pretty hard to do so as Tinder has its own set of mathematical equations to create as many matches as possible. However, I did the best I could to keep these outliers in mind throughout the experiment.
The Project Proposal:
GOAL: To see which profile gets the most Matches, most Messages, potential date offerings, cellphone/Instagram/Snapchat requests: the blonde or the brunette.
Subject: My friend, Sarah, who goes to school in New York and whose photos I used with her permission. Sarah was aware of everything throughout the entire process and had the ability to interject whenever she wanted to. She didn’t mind potentially finding a new man. She had the passwords to both accounts, however, she wasn’t allowed to communicate with a match unless I (the profiler) was made aware of it. Sarah was able to contribute things if she wanted to, but nothing that could jeopardize the operation.
Things that are the same in the profiles:
- Age: 19
- School: changed to Boston University
- Number of Photos: each profile had 3 photos.
- The photos were as similar as possible, containing the same friends, and same angle.
- Bio: “Love hanging out with friends, but also like to have a chill night in. Let’s explore the city! [with emojis]”
Things that are different:
- Hair color and actual photos: Obviously, Sarah couldn’t have the same exact photos if only because it would have been impossible to recreate them because of location and her current hair color. So, while the images aren’t identical, they are as similar as I could make them.
- Name: Each profile had different names.
Photos:
Carrie = Blonde
Charlotte = Brunette
Bio: “Love hanging out with friends, but also like to have a chill night in. Let’s explore the city!”
How it Worked:
The two different profiles were used every day, typically at night. 50 right swipes were swiped each night. No one was swiped left.
Logistics:
- The two profiles were used for a week.
- The profile will be set to boys only.
- The age range of the boys were both set to: minimum 19 – maximum 25
- The average distance was: “Within 45 miles.”
- The number of Matches, Superlikes, and Messages were obviously kept track of.
Superlikes:
- The profile will not Superlike anyone.
The Results:
Interestingly enough, there was no clear or specific winner. Ultimately the blonde account, Carrie, had more swipes: 290 right swipes out of 400. The brunette account, Charlotte, had 281 swipes out of a possible 400. So, while there wasn’t an obvious winner, the blonde account technically had more right swipes.
However, even though Carrie had more swipes overall, the brunette account had more messages with 154 out of 281 matches. The blonde account had 136 messages out of a possible 289.
The brunette account also had more Superlikes with 33 out of 281 matches. The blonde account had 25 out of 289 matches.
While I wish that I could have conducted the test for a longer period of time, it became a little too uncomfortable for me to continue.
After comparing the test results, I concluded that there really isn’t an obvious preference for blondes over brunettes. So, in reference to all those tales about men only liking blondes or blondes being the most popular, this data doesn’t prove that to be completely true. Personally, I think I believe more in personalities than looks but this test was definitely fun to do. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so who can really say whether one eye color, hair color, or body type is superior or better? You can’t.
Stay tuned for an article featuring some of the best and worst pick-up lines that our profiles received! Also, find out about if any men caught on to the two different profiles and potential arrest threats! Read it all in my next article about this study.
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