In the vast and often lonely theater of modern courtship, a team of Dutch researchers has confirmed what poets have long suspected: the particular and the genuine draw us closer than the generic and the rehearsed. A study of over a thousand dating platform users found that profiles written with originality — real metaphors, real details, real voice — were consistently perceived as more attractive and more intelligent than those leaning on familiar, worn-out phrases. The finding is modest in scope but resonant in implication: in the search for connection, authenticity is not merely virtuous, it
Original Dating Profiles Win More Matches, Study Finds
Profiles that used metaphors registered as more original than plain, featureless language.
Mark
So the study is saying that if you write something interesting about yourself, you'll get more matches. That seems almost too simple.
Mimi
It does, but the researchers actually measured it. They had over a thousand people rate profiles on attractiveness and originality separately, and the correlation was strong. More original profiles scored higher on attractiveness, intelligence, and sense of humor.
Luke
But here's the thing—this is all from one type of platform. 93 percent of the participants were from 50PlusMatch, which is text-heavy and skews older. The average age was 63. We don't know if this works the same way on Tinder or Instagram-style apps where photos are the main event.
Mimi
Exactly. Van der Zanden was clear about that limitation. She said younger users tend to prefer picture-based platforms, so the findings might not transfer.
Mark
What actually made a profile feel original? Was it just avoiding clichés, or was there something specific?
Mimi
Two things. First, stylistic choices—using metaphors, for instance. Second, sharing more concrete personal details. Profiles that included specific information about the person, and more of it, felt fresher.
Luke
But we should note that "more words" and "more personal information" are correlated with originality in this study. That doesn't necessarily mean they cause it. It could be that people who are more thoughtful writers just happen to write more.
Mark
Did everyone agree on what was original and what wasn't?
Mimi
Surprisingly, yes. There was broad consensus among participants about which profiles felt original versus generic. That suggests originality isn't just in the eye of the beholder.
Luke
That's interesting, but it's still a narrow group. We're talking about Dutch users over fifty on a text-focused platform. The researchers themselves said they need to study younger demographics to see if this holds up.
El Pulso
- Millions of people craft dating profiles using the same tired phrases, unknowingly burying themselves in a crowd of indistinguishable sameness.
- A measurable gap emerged between original and generic profiles — originality correlated strongly with perceived attractiveness, intelligence, and even humor.
- Simple stylistic moves — a metaphor, a concrete personal detail — were enough to shift how strangers perceived the person behind the words.
- The study's reach is limited: participants skewed older and used a text-heavy platform, leaving younger, image-first app users largely unstudied.
- Researchers are now pushing toward follow-up work to test whether originality's power holds across age groups, platforms, and different kinds of creative expression.
In the vast and often lonely theater of modern courtship, a team of Dutch researchers has confirmed what poets have long suspected: the particular and the genuine draw us closer than the generic and the rehearsed. A study of over a thousand dating platform users found that profiles written with originality — real metaphors, real details, real voice — were consistently perceived as more attractive and more intelligent than those leaning on familiar, worn-out phrases. The finding is modest in scope but resonant in implication: in the search for connection, authenticity is not merely virtuous, it is effective.
A research team led by Tilburg University's Tess van der Zanden set out to measure something intuitive but rarely quantified: whether originality in dating profiles actually translates into more interest from potential matches. Drawing on 1,234 users from two Dutch dating platforms, they asked participants to rate profiles on perceived attractiveness and willingness to date — and the results were consistent. Profiles that avoided clichés and generic language scored meaningfully higher across attractiveness, intelligence, and humor.
Two factors drove the originality effect. Stylistic choices mattered — even a simple metaphor registered as fresher than plain, featureless prose. So did the depth and specificity of self-disclosure: profiles that shared more concrete, personal details felt more distinctive than those offering only surface-level facts.
The study's population was specific: over 93 percent of participants came from 50PlusMatch, a platform for users fifty and older, with a mean age of 63.5. Because the platform is text-heavy, written profiles carry real weight in how users encounter one another — a dynamic that differs sharply from image-first apps like Tinder. Van der Zanden was candid about this limitation, noting the findings cannot yet be extended to younger users or picture-dominant platforms.
One quietly significant detail: participants largely agreed on which profiles felt original and which felt stale, suggesting that freshness in self-presentation is not purely in the eye of the beholder. The researchers are now pursuing follow-up studies across age groups and platform types, and investigating whether specific textual elements carry outsized influence. The broader map of how originality functions across online dating remains unfinished — but the early signal is clear enough.
A team of researchers studying online dating has arrived at a finding that might seem obvious but turns out to be measurable: people who write original things in their dating profiles get more interest than people who don't. The study, published in PLOS ONE, examined 1,234 users from two Dutch dating platforms and found that profiles avoiding tired clichés and generic language were consistently rated as more attractive and intelligent by other users evaluating them.
The researchers, led by Tess van der Zanden, an assistant professor at Tilburg University, asked study participants to rate profiles on two dimensions: how attractive they found the person behind the profile, on a scale of one to seven, and whether they would want to date that person, yes or no. The results showed a clear pattern. Profiles that scored higher on originality also scored significantly higher on perceived attractiveness, intelligence, and sense of humor. The connection held across the board.
When the team dug deeper into what made certain profiles feel more original, two things stood out. First, stylistic choices mattered. Profiles that used metaphors—even simple ones like "I'm colorful as the rainbow"—registered as more original than those written in plain, featureless language. Second, the amount and quality of personal information shared made a difference. Profiles that included more concrete details about the person writing them, and more of those details overall, were perceived as fresher and more distinctive than those that stuck to surface-level facts.
The study drew from a specific population: 93.4 percent of participants came from 50PlusMatch, a dating platform for people fifty and older, with a mean age of 63.5 years. This matters because the platform itself is text-heavy. Unlike Tinder or other image-first apps, 50PlusMatch gives the written profile substantial weight in how users encounter potential matches. Van der Zanden acknowledged this limitation directly. The findings cannot be generalized to younger users or to platforms where photos dominate the experience. Younger adults tend to prefer picture-based apps, where the dynamics of attraction and perception work differently.
There was also broad agreement among study participants about which profiles felt original and which felt stale. This suggests that originality in dating profiles is not purely subjective—there are recognizable patterns in what reads as fresh versus what reads as recycled.
The researchers are now pursuing follow-up studies to test whether these findings hold across different age groups and different types of platforms. They are also investigating whether specific textual elements—particular kinds of metaphors, certain disclosure patterns—have outsized effects on how people perceive potential matches. One open question is whether a person's own creativity influences how much they value originality in others. The work suggests that if you are writing a dating profile, the generic route is the wrong one. But the full picture of how originality plays across the entire landscape of online dating remains incomplete.
Citas Notables
Profiles that score higher on perceived profile text originality are more likely to contain one or more fixed or novel metaphors, and share more concrete personal information.— Tess van der Zanden, assistant professor at Tilburg University
We can thus not generalize our findings and draw any conclusions about general effects of perceived profile text originality on impression formation across all ages.— Tess van der Zanden
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