Quality Over Quantity: Less Is More

Everyone would probably like to believe they’re secretly players, able to juggle countless partners like a modern-day Casanova, but the truth is often very far from this self-created image. The ability to chat and meet with countless attractive singles is the main selling point of any online dating site, but very few users realize that being drowned in possibilities is actually a setback, not an advantage. There’s just too much freedom, and it’s affecting several aspects of these services. You can upload dozens of images, date more than one partner at once and even have accounts on multiple sites thanks to the fact that registration is usually free. But does fragmenting your attention and energy really serve your benefit, or would you be better off focusing on finding real connections rather than bullheadedly charging through unending dates that just never seem to go anywhere?

A recent study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison pointed out that people who can choose from a larger roster of partners tend to be less satisfied compared to those who only have a handful of options. They claimed that this is the result of counterfactual thinking: the more options you dismiss, the more regrets you generate. And even if you pick a perfectly fine option, all those discarded dates will haunt you. Not to mention that the larger the selection, the pickier you’ll be. Browsing through hundreds of profiles means that you barely have any time to assess your partner and only judge based on the profile picture. On the other hand, if you have a tight selection of candidates, you will more likely go through their personality details carefully. Dating multiple people at the same time won’t solve this problem: not only does it go against dating etiquette, but juggling several dates fractures your attention and you end up botching your chances with any of them.