I am… and I am looking for… Self-descriptions in online dating.

A probabilistic sample of 420 “personal ads” made by Italian people at a large on-line dating website was analyzed to see what strategies people use when looking for a partner, what is the relative importance of attributes they mention in their descriptions of themselves, as well as, if present, of the sought-for partner. Central aims of the study were (a) to see how people present themselves to potential partners, especially as regards the extent to which they include in their ads attributes such personality and emotional style and functioning, and, conversely, what they specify, if anything, as regards the sought-for partner, and (b) to test the extent to which personal ads were gendered and showed intra-cultural differences and similarities. The results showed that ads concentrate on positive personal attributes and are to some extent ‘emotionally loaded’, with almost no gender, age or other sociodemographic differences.