Not the perfect 10? That’s perfect for dating

Data show men who rate themselves as five out of 10 and women as eight out of 10 receive more messages

PICTURES carefully posed to show off muscles and good looks are a staple of men’s dating profiles. But research from Oxford University suggests that hopeful male singletons might as well not bother, as looking “average” could serve them better.

Academics suggested that women often chose men who were less attractive in the belief that they were more likely to be faithful and reliable.

Data from the Oxford Internet Institute show that men who rate their looks as five out of 10 receive more messages than men who give themselves a 10 out of 10 rating.

For women, the ideal higher, at eight out of 10.

The analysis of messages – from singles who were heterosexual on dating rating is site eharmony going back 10 years and sent by more than 150,000 people – also found that women were becoming less and less likely to initiate conversations.

Men were 6 per cent more likely to send the first message in 2008, which had risen to 29 per cent this year.

Women who initiated contact received fewer messages on average, the research found, with their response rate dropping by 15 per cent when they had begun the conversation.

Single people had become less likely over time to see a potential match’s religion, wealth or education as important, though women are more selective across all criteria, including age.

Researchers said the findings showed that daters had become “more tolerant” and more open to dating people from different backgrounds, but that gender roles were persistent.

Taha Yasseri, professor of computational social science at the University of Oxford Internet Institute, who led the research, said that someone who considered themselves a 10 out of 10 might be unattractive in other ways.

“That tells us something about their personality, which is not probably the most interesting,” he said.

He added that people might be intimidated by approaching extremely good looking potential partners.

“They might think that they have little chance compared with someone who is good looking but not 10 out of 10,” he added. “It also has to do with self-esteem. Someone might think ‘I am not that good looking, and if I take someone who is much better than me, I might be a bit worried about the faithfulness of my partner’.”

Romain Bertrand, UK country manager at eharmony said: “While we’ve become far more progressive in terms of dating people from differing religions, cultures and social stratas, traditional gender roles still persist.”

Figures released last year by Yougov found that women preferred men to be average looking rather than extremely attractive. It found that 7 per cent of women saw their ideal partner as a “perfect 10”, while just over a quarter said they would score a five.