Single Brits ‘dating capacity’ revealed!

British singletons can only cope with messaging one new person a DAY before they hit ‘dating capacity’, research reveals

  • Oxford University and eharmony analysed the online dating habits of Brits
  • Findings show Brits looking for love can balance seven new interactions a week 
  • Research also suggest attractive people are less likely to respond 
  • Experts believe people are searching for quality connections not quantity

Online daters can only cope with messaging one new love interest a day, research shows. 

Singletons reach so-called ‘dating capacity’ once they have contacted seven potential matches within a week, according to the report from Oxford University. 

The study also found people who considered themselves attractive were less likely to initiate a conversation than those who did not. 

Less is more: Singletons reach so-called ‘dating capacity’ once they have contacted seven potential matches within a week, according to the report from Oxford University. Stock image

The research was conducted by scientists from Oxford University’s Oxford Internet Institute (OII) in collaboration with online dating website eharmony. 

The team analysed data generated by more than 150,000 dating profiles set up over the last 10 years.

Findings show British singletons only have the capacity to effectively communicate with seven new connections per week, or one new person a day. This is despite having access to hundreds of potential ‘matches’. 


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The vast majority of online daters – some 95 per cent – send requests to a maximum of 12 new people a week and reply to seven or fewer. 

This suggests users understand they have a limit of how many connections they can communicate with when seeking to build a meaningful new relationship. 

Researchers also found self-determined attractive users were more complacent, registering as 33 per cent less likely to respond to a message than the average user. 

Complacent: Researchers found self-determined attractive users were more complacent and were 33 per cent less likely to respond to a message than the average user. Stock image 

And women who prove popular on the dating platform are significantly more selective about how many messages they respond to than the average user.

Commenting on the findings, Professor of Computational Social Science Taha Yasseri said: ‘Though it may be expected that people who online date would possess a “more is more” approach in their search for a partner, the opposite is true. 

‘In the study, singles were actually fairly restrictive in the number of people that they communicated with at any one time. This may indicate that they are more invested in their search for a truly compatible partner.’

Romain Bertrand, UK Country Manager at eharmony added: ‘This doesn’t come as a great surprise – it’s about quality not quantity. 

‘People are very good at understanding when a potential partner is investing time and effort into them, and equally, when they’re just playing a numbers game.’ 

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