Dubai: Popular culture dictates that people who are single should find a significant other, and if you’re one of those who are under pressure to find a partner in life, you might need to stop looking at yourself in the mirror.
International data and analytics group YouGov has recently asked panelists from 20 countries about what they look for in a romantic partner.
The survey respondents, including more than 1,000 people from the UAE, were asked to prioritise the importance of six different attributes in a person, including income, appearance and personality, based on their personal preferences.
The majority of those who responded, especially women, are unanimous in saying that how a person carries himself, behaves or treats others is the most important thing. Other factors such as good looks and money are not equally important.
Among UAE residents, about six in ten (61 per cent) of women said they want their romantic partner to have a personality they like. Physical appearance and financial status may be a part of the consideration, but they are the two least important factors that women look for.
In fact, only 13 per cent of women said that money is high on their list of preferences, while less than a quarter (23 per cent) pointed to good looks as a top priority. After personality, a good sense of humour and intelligence are favoured the most by women in the country.
Among the men in UAE, more than half (55 per cent) said they want their partner to have a “personality I like,” but good looks is also almost as important, with 47 per cent saying they prefer their partner to be good looking.
A smaller number of men (nine per cent) give importance on how much money their partner makes.
The study took into account the feedback gathered from 1,002 residents in the UAE in August this year.
While most respondents worldwide, especially among women, voted personality as the number one attribute, respondents from certain markets showed different preferences.
Among men, Vietnam was the only country where good looks are considered to outshine personality in particular, with 46 per cent of Vietnamese men ranking personality as important.
Women in Nordic countries were the most likely to choose personality over good looks globally, compared to those in Asian countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, where people were the least likely to agree.
In Egypt, there are far more women (83 per cent) than men (55 per cent) who ranked personality more important than looks.
A similar trend can be observed in Saudi Arabia, where nearly eight in ten women (79 per cent), as opposed to 52 per cent of men, who ranked personality higher than physical appearance.
