TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – Sep 16 - Atheists have more success at online dating, according to an
analysis of 500,000+ "first contacts" sent by users of OkCupid. ~42% of
messages which included the word "atheist" achieved replies,
significantly higher than the average response rate of 32%. Mentioning
"god" in a first approach discouraged people from replying. FULL ARTICLE @ TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
That’s a meaningless statistic. It’s a secular site. How do atheists fare on a religious site?
That’s a meaningless statistic. It’s a secular site. How do atheists fare on a religious site?
Atheists don’t go to religious sites Sam, however Christians or any other religious sect do use secular sites. This is in no way a meaningless stat!
Atheists don’t go to religious sites Sam, however Christians or any other religious sect do use secular sites. This is in no way a meaningless stat!
I disagree, Dan about it not being meaningless. Two points:
1. Yes, Christians and others go to secular sites. However, most of these sites have limited denominatinal choices, e.g “Christian”, “Catholic”, & maybe a few others. Consequently, for devout Christians, it is hard to tell who is who. So, using the word “god” could be a good way to figure that out (pretty quickly).
This is a great argument for why devout Christians should be on ChristianCafe.com instead. That’s our raison d’etre.
2. I seriously doubt atheists include the word “athiest” in an intial message (the article says “first contacts”, which isn’t defined), unless they have been chatting for a while.
Or, “atheist” is a selection under “Religion (or otherwise)” to begin with, so they know the person they are writing to is also an atheist. You don’t tend to have degrees of atheism, *by definition* whereas “Christian” can mean different things to different people.
Regardless of yours and my opinions, it is an interesting article and great marketing. These press releases are put out to be picked up in the media, which gets people talking (we are, so there’s proof). This is precisely what OKCupid wants. Good on them:)
I disagree, Dan about it not being meaningless. Two points:
1. Yes, Christians and others go to secular sites. However, most of these sites have limited denominatinal choices, e.g “Christian”, “Catholic”, & maybe a few others. Consequently, for devout Christians, it is hard to tell who is who. So, using the word “god” could be a good way to figure that out (pretty quickly).
This is a great argument for why devout Christians should be on ChristianCafe.com instead. That’s our raison d’etre.
2. I seriously doubt atheists include the word “athiest” in an intial message (the article says “first contacts”, which isn’t defined), unless they have been chatting for a while.
Or, “atheist” is a selection under “Religion (or otherwise)” to begin with, so they know the person they are writing to is also an atheist. You don’t tend to have degrees of atheism, *by definition* whereas “Christian” can mean different things to different people.
Regardless of yours and my opinions, it is an interesting article and great marketing. These press releases are put out to be picked up in the media, which gets people talking (we are, so there’s proof). This is precisely what OKCupid wants. Good on them:)
Hey Guys – I love the dialogue and thanks for the kudos, Sam. Yes, we want people talking about OkCupid, but we also want people thinking about dating and relationships in different ways.
As for the “athiest” stat (which was only one of many we wrote about), I think the intuitive explanation is that in a first message from one athiest to another, their atheism is likely to be one of the more rare things they have in common — thus making that topic more interesting and worthy of a response. Whereas if a christian is writing to another, the degree of devoutness may not mesh and therefore a discussion of specifics may actually be off-putting. That’s just my guess, though.
Sam
Hey Guys – I love the dialogue and thanks for the kudos, Sam. Yes, we want people talking about OkCupid, but we also want people thinking about dating and relationships in different ways.
As for the “athiest” stat (which was only one of many we wrote about), I think the intuitive explanation is that in a first message from one athiest to another, their atheism is likely to be one of the more rare things they have in common — thus making that topic more interesting and worthy of a response. Whereas if a christian is writing to another, the degree of devoutness may not mesh and therefore a discussion of specifics may actually be off-putting. That’s just my guess, though.
Sam
Sam, you’ve hit the nail on the head – your explanation makes perfect sense.
Sam, you’ve hit the nail on the head – your explanation makes perfect sense.
As a non-believer, I like to hear this sort of thing. However, the data is SERIOUSLY suspect when I read its from OKCupid.com, “the leading US dating website” – uh, granted that I’ve never used a dating website, but you’d think I’d at least have heard of the “leading US dating service”, right?
As a non-believer, I like to hear this sort of thing. However, the data is SERIOUSLY suspect when I read its from OKCupid.com, “the leading US dating website” – uh, granted that I’ve never used a dating website, but you’d think I’d at least have heard of the “leading US dating service”, right?