Dating Science, a story of modern-day expectations.
A large number of philosophical questions hit us every day. Some of them related to life, a few of the common ones being — What is the purpose of life? Why was the universe created, if death is an inevitable outcome? Most of these are too difficult to be answered thus are left lingering in our minds until they diminish and fade away.
On one of my recent discussions about a philosophical thought spree with my roommate, I had a realization; while the end of life may not be favorable we still live through a period of magic where we make friends, build meaningful relationships and fall in love.
My roommate Vishad beautifully quoted this thought from some movie -
“The journey is way more beautiful than the destination”
A precursor to finding love is dating, and being still out in dating pool looking for my perfectly imperfect women a wave of self-doubt hit me. Will I fit the bill? Would some girl consider me an average looking guy with a good personality a potential partner? As I kept on riding this thought train it circled back and forth leading to one final question -
What is more important for my future date, looks or personality?
Will my average look combined with above-average personality (acting a bit confident on this one 😂 ) be enough. Talking with my friend’s I realized that many of them had similar concerns.
Fortunately, the data scientist in me knew that this question can be answered with confidence by data. To this end, I created a short survey to understand people’s expectations from their potential dates. After a bit of data clean up, a sweet story emerged. Conveyed mostly through graphs and made with love on tableau I present to you “Dating Science, a story of modern-day expectations”.
In line with traditions of great storytelling first off credits: Thanks to all my amazing friends for sharing (especially my other roommate Somesh, for putting in time and effort of sharing), taking time out and giving their honest opinion on the survey ( Please share and fill it out, it takes about a minute to complete it and gives us a wider perspective).
Demography of participants …
a. gender
b. age
Take away: The First one being women are more willing to fill out a survey and second is that I have a slightly biased dataset.
Importance of …
a. Personality
b. Appearance
Take away: An average looking human and a good personality is way more desirable in a potential partner. (My chances look brighter with each passing moment 😀 .)
Expectation trends for
a. Personality
b. Appearance
Take away: As age passes, women’s expectation for a good personality remains consistent and expectations for good looks increase. Interestingly with men, an increase in age causes higher expectations for a good personality in a potential partner while it declines steadily for looks.
(I am skeptical of this one, as it may not be universal. This graph needs to be redrawn with a larger sample)
Perfect age for a perfect partner
Contradictory to popular belief, most people in both genders seem to be looking for a long term relationship between the age of 22–25.
In conclusion, the probability of me finding a date and falling in love seems to look great. If you have a good personality, an average look and are between the age of 22–25 than you would be a great partner so go out and start dating — if you aren’t already :)