Oz Dating

When people assess each other for romantic potential face to face, they are using a large range of different criteria. What the person actually says is, of course, important. But facial expressions, body language, tone of voice and other factors also have an influence.

When the same thing happens online through a dating site, the interaction is much less multi-faceted. However dating site members still make decisions based on less obvious aspects than just what the person writes in their e-mail. As a Queensland University of Technology study discovered, aspects such as grammar and spelling can be influential.

It seems that some people can be turned off if the person they're communicating with is a sloppy writer, or one who goes overboard with the exclamation marks. So it's probably a good idea to take a bit of care when replying to e-mails on these sites.