Dating During Coronavirus: A Battle of the Sexes
Men and Women Are Not on the Same Page
For months there have been stories of men pressuring (and even harassing) women on dating apps to meet in person. Back in April the story made headlines in Mashable. It hasn’t been a good look for men.
Once again, men and women are not aligned. In hopes of shedding some light on the issue, in late April we put up a poll asking men and women how soon they would be ready to meet in person. This post gets updated weekly with the latest results.
It’s June 10, 2020, and we have over a month’s worth of data. Given that there is a deadly virus terrorizing the country, and social distancing is alive and well in most places, the results are frankly pretty shocking. Things are starting to change, though.
Let’s dive in.
The Dating Readiness Score
We created a Dating Readiness Score showing the relative willingness of each gender to go on a date. To calculate the score, we used a tiered multiplier for each of the 5 answer choices, based on the relative readiness the answer indicated.
The scale maxes out at 10. A score of 10, if attained, will indicate that all singles are currently dating in person, or ready to start (more on methodology at the end of the post).
Dating Readiness Over Time
With a four-week running tally of individual scores for men and women, the trend is clear: Men are far more ready than women to meet in person. But it’s not as simple as it seems. I’ll get into specifics after the jump.
If you’re on your phone, you’ll need to flip it to be able to view the charts in full.
When we began the poll in late April, men were significantly more ready to meet than women (1.8x), as expected, but both genders still had relatively low scores overall.
Beginning in May a larger gap started to open up, with men being 2.2x more ready than women. One week later the gap increased to 2.5x. Spring was in the air and perhaps men were getting extra antsy.
After that the gap began to narrow (down to 2.3x). As of the most recent update to this post (June 1st), the gap is down to 1.7x, the smallest it has been, but it didn’t change week over week. Did the lead up to Memorial Day weekend increased urgency?
While the gap may be closing, this does not mean women and men are on the same page – men are still far more likely to be ready to meet in person than women.
Week of 6/8: Reality setting in?
This week we see trends moving in the opposite direction. With a “second wave” of coronavirus impacting nearly half the states in the US, this comes as no surprise. For the first time in three weeks, we have men that are not close to being ready to date.
Dating Readiness Scores – Women: 4.9, Men: 8.9
The chart below shows the distribution of the responses to the poll.
Week of 6/1: The curve is…flattening
Well this is interesting. For the first time, we are seeing some… flattening of the curve.
Dating Readiness Scores – Women: 5.2, Men: 9.3
- Men and women both inched up 1/10 of a point, which is insignificant
- The number of women holding out 8 weeks or more went from 15% to 13%, also insignificant.
The chart below shows the distribution of the responses to the poll.
Week of 5/25: The Gap is Closing
This week women significantly warmed to the idea of meeting in person, although a substantial number are still not ready.
Dating Readiness Scores – Women: 5.1, Men: 9.2
- Women are 40% more ready this week than last week, overall
- Overall, men are 1.7x more ready to date in person than women
- 89% of men are dating or ready to meet (most are not actually dating), compared to 22% of women
- No men reported that it would be more than eight weeks before they’d be ready; 24% of women said it would be
The chart below shows the distribution of the responses to the poll.
Week of 5/11: The Gap Narrows
Men are more ready than ever to meet in person, and some women are beginning to warm to the idea.
Dating Readiness Scores – Women: 3.7, Men: 8.6
- Overall, men are 2.3x more ready than women
- 80% of men are dating or ready to meet (most are not actually dating), compared to 22% of women
- No men reported that it would be more than eight weeks before they would be ready; 24% of women said it would be
The chart below shows the distribution of the responses to the poll.
Week of 5/11: The Gap Widens
Men and women alike are feeling slightly more ready to date than last week, but the gap is still substantial.
Dating Readiness Scores – Women: 3, Men: 7.6
- Overall, men are 2.5 x more ready to date in person than women
- 41% are dating or ready to meet, compared to only 8% of women
- 9x more women than men will not be ready for eight weeks or more. That’s a 300% increase compared to last week. The huge change is because very few men are saying it will be 8 weeks or more at this point (only 3%).
The chart below shows the distribution of the responses to the poll.
Week of 5/04: Men Getting Antsy
Dating Readiness Scores – Women: 2.5, Men: 5.5
- Overall, men are 2.2 x more ready to date in person than women
- Men are starting to go stir crazy: 41% are dating or ready to meet, compared to only 8% of women
- Three times as many women than men will not be ready for eight weeks or more. That’s a 50% increase compared to last week. The big jump is because significantly fewer man men are still saying it will be eight weeks or more (12%).
The chart below shows the distribution of the responses to the poll.
Week of 4/27: Men Want to Meet
Dating Readiness Scores – Women: 2.1, Men: 3.8
- Overall, men are 1.8x more ready to date in person than women
- Three times more men than women are already dating, although very few people were dating overall
- Twice as many women than men will not be ready for eight weeks or more
The chart below shows the distribution of the responses to the poll.
Methodology
A simple poll was placed on our website, with two questions:
- How soon will you be ready to date in person?
- What gender do you identify most closely with?
Using the data, we calculated a Dating Readiness Score that shows the relative willingness of each gender to go on a date. To calculate the score, we used a tiered multiplier for each of the 5 answers. The more an the answer indicates willingness to meet in person, the larger the multiplier. Here are the multipliers for the answers to each question.
- Already dating – 10
- Ready to date anytime – 10
- Two weeks – 3
- Four weeks – 2
- 8 weeks or more – 1
The scale maxes out at 10. A score of 10, if attained, it will indicate that all singles are currently dating in person, or ready to begin any time.
