Brush up your chat, guys, you've 30 seconds to impress

Women make up their minds about potential partners much faster than men, who appear to be more thoughtful than they are usually given credit for.

That is the conclusion of preliminary findings from the first large-scale speed dating experiment.

It suggests that if men want to be successful with the opposite sex, chemistry and chat-up lines are all-important, more so than good looks.

The study

The study was conducted last Sunday by Professor Richard Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire, at the Edinburgh International Science Festival and involved 100 members of the public who "were single people, looking for love".
 
During the event, organised with Dr James Houran, an American psychologist, participants took part in 10 speed dates each, rated the attractiveness of their dates and indicated whether they would like to meet that person again.

Results

First results of the 500 speed dates released on Thursday revealed that in about a third of cases participants reached decisions about their potential mates in less than 30 seconds.

Women proved especially likely to make such snap decisions, with 45 per cent of women's decisions being made in under 30 seconds, compared to 22 per cent of men's decisions.

"Men are often accused of being shallow and judging women very quickly. However, this evidence suggests that women may make up their minds much quicker than men," said Professor Wiseman.

"It suggests men have only a few seconds to impress a woman, thus emphasising the importance of their opening comments."

This is a surprise because evolutionary theory suggests that women are more interested than men in long-term relationships, said Professor Wiseman.

Questionnaires used to follow up the speed dating suggest that the decision made by women was based not so much on physical attractiveness as chemistry.

"They make a snap judgment on whether they click or not."

Overall, 60 per cent of participants met someone with whom there was a mutual interest, resulting in 70 further dates.

Picky

"We are going to be tracking those dates over the next six months," said Prof Wiseman.

Women were twice as picky as men. On average, women wanted to meet two men again, whereas men wanted to see about four women again.

The top-rated man and woman of the evening had a 100 per cent success rate, with all of their dates wanting to meet them again.

As for the 30 per cent who did not get a date, "a big part of their lack of success revolved around them either being very picky, or saying very little during the dates".

One woman faced with an unresponsive male told Prof Wiseman: "I'm not Parkinson. There are only so many questions I can think of."