Try a little kindness It’s No. 1 trait for those seeking love: survey
Looking for a longstanding love connection? Maybe skip the gym and focus on others instead.
A new survey from the popular period-tracking app Clue asked 68,000 respondents from 180 countries what they considered the top traits in an ideal, long-term partner.
“Kindness” was the most sought-after attribute among all respondents, regardless of gender, with 89% of women and 86% of men deeming it a “most important” quality.
Second-most-popular was “supportiveness,” selected by 87% of the women and 84% of the men, followed by “intelligence,” chosen by 72% of both the female and male respondents.
Looks, wealth and power were less likely to be considered critical, the survey found.
While beefcake bodies might be popular for bigscreen action heroes, less than 3% of women globally said they prefer “very muscular physiques.”
An “average” body type was by far the most popular among female respondents, preferred by 45%, while an “athletic” build was preferred by 35%.
But most women aren’t willing to compromise on one physical attribute.
A whopping 91% of the female respondents said they want their long-term partner to at least be taller than they are, the survey found.
Meanwhile, only 44% of the female respondents said “financial security” was a top priority in a mate, while “attractive face” was chosen by only 41%.
The respondents were allowed to pick as many “most important” attributes as they wanted.
The physical traits most important to American men were “attractive smile,” “attractive eyes,” “average” breasts and “average” buttocks, according to the survey, which also collected data from users of the MyOne condom brand.
“Kindness is rather like gravity: essential, but little noticed until it’s gone,” Dr. Virginia Vitzthum, a senior scientist at the Kinsey Institute as well as Clue’s director of scientific research, said of the findings.
“Given today’s emphasis on looks and wealth, it may surprise you that kindness is a top desirable trait across the world,” she said.
“But kindness is key to the human capacity for forming the long-term social bonds so essential to our evolution. Without those bonds, and kindness to help us get through the inevitable rough patches, we wouldn’t have survived and flourished,” she said.
In other notable findings, only a quarter of women globally listed “religious similarity” as “very important,” though in the U.S., the figure was a much-higher 40%, the survey found.
And the importance of “political similarity” among female respondents varied widely based on sexual orientation, with 47% of LGBT women but only 27% of straight women listing it as critical.