Interesting. If I may ask, what sort of results are you getting (in terms of responses, females contacting you, and dates from the website)?
When I first constructed my OkCupid profile, I deliberately minimized my intellectual interests because I want to avoid getting stereotyped as a “nerd” before someone even knows me. I’ve been thinking of adding them in and see if it lowers the female attention I receive. I did recently add in that I “make computers do my bidding” and that I “build websites” (avoiding the word “programmer”).
It’s my theory that stereotypically nerdy guys are primarily going to be limited to nerdy girls. Yet nerdy girls (in my observations) seem to date all types of guys as long as the guy is smart. So if you come across as say, a smart jock, then you can date nerdy girls and sporty girls. If you come across as a smart artsy guy, then you can date nerdy girls and artsy girls. Of course, I don’t have any degree of certainty that this theory is correct, but it’s plausible enough that I try to not get immediately pigeonholed as a nerd.
Adding successive elements to someone’s perceptions of you is not a commutative operation: order matters.
My profile (link in your inbox) is full of signaling, of my qualities which I think may be most attractive. And I do get some decent results (I’m currently seeing a nerdy girl from the website). I wonder how intellectual and world-saving I could actually afford to go.
I was on OkCupid, originally listed as bi, and I got flooded with responses from dudes. Immediately. Swarms of dudes. Even though I wrote in my profile I was only interested in women at this time. From this I extrapolate that any girl within the 5-7 range of attractiveness is getting a lot of attention.
On the other hand, one of my intelligent (nerdy) male friends has successfully acquired about 5-6 dates from Okcupid within about a 3-4 month period.
Interesting. If I may ask, what sort of results are you getting (in terms of responses, females contacting you, and dates from the website)?
When I first constructed my OkCupid profile, I deliberately minimized my intellectual interests because I want to avoid getting stereotyped as a “nerd” before someone even knows me. I’ve been thinking of adding them in and see if it lowers the female attention I receive. I did recently add in that I “make computers do my bidding” and that I “build websites” (avoiding the word “programmer”).
It’s my theory that stereotypically nerdy guys are primarily going to be limited to nerdy girls. Yet nerdy girls (in my observations) seem to date all types of guys as long as the guy is smart. So if you come across as say, a smart jock, then you can date nerdy girls and sporty girls. If you come across as a smart artsy guy, then you can date nerdy girls and artsy girls. Of course, I don’t have any degree of certainty that this theory is correct, but it’s plausible enough that I try to not get immediately pigeonholed as a nerd.
Adding successive elements to someone’s perceptions of you is not a commutative operation: order matters.
My profile (link in your inbox) is full of signaling, of my qualities which I think may be most attractive. And I do get some decent results (I’m currently seeing a nerdy girl from the website). I wonder how intellectual and world-saving I could actually afford to go.
I would think “make computers do my bidding” comes across as far nerdier than “programmer”.
I was on OkCupid, originally listed as bi, and I got flooded with responses from dudes. Immediately. Swarms of dudes. Even though I wrote in my profile I was only interested in women at this time. From this I extrapolate that any girl within the 5-7 range of attractiveness is getting a lot of attention.
On the other hand, one of my intelligent (nerdy) male friends has successfully acquired about 5-6 dates from Okcupid within about a 3-4 month period.
Also relevant: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2009/09/24/atheism-bringing-the-sexy-back/