Abstrakt
Previous studies have found that personality dimensions of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Emotional stability are preferred in both men and women as potential partners. However, these studies vary in preferences for the dimension of Extraversion and Openness.
The aim of our study was to test whether the personality characteristics of participants would have an effect on them meeting up with someone from the speed-dating session. Thus, we hypothesised that the participants with the desired personality dimensions would be more successful in speed-dating (i.e., they would met someone from the session).
We collected data from 145 participants (58 males and 87 females), who took part in commercial speed-dating sessions ran in the Czech Republic. Before they attended the speed-dating session, the participants completed the brief Big 5 questionnaire (assessing for Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional stability, Openness).
We then compared the participants who met someone and who did not; analysing the data for men and women separately. The male participants who met someone scored significantly higher in Extraversion compared with the men who did not.
Interestingly, no other personality dimension showed significant differences between the participants who met someone and who did not (men and women alike). Our results might indicate that personality dimensions play a relatively minor role in mate selection processes.
However, this might be a consequence of time constrains of the mate selection during the speed-dating. These results highlight specificity of the speed-dating paradigm and its utility in modelling the mate selection processes.