We surveyed over 500 people on first date norms. Here are the questions we’ll answer:

1. Who should pay for the first date?
2. What’s the preferred activity for a first date?
3. What level of physical contact is appropriate on a first date?
4. How late is acceptable for someone to arrive on a first date?
5. Is it appropriate to discuss ex-partners on a first date?
6. When should you follow up after a first date?
7. Do people believe in ‘love at first sight’?

Key Takeaways:

• Many people (36%) expect the man to pay. Men especially believe this.
• Coffee (35%) and dinner at a restaurant (28%) were most preferred first date activities
  • Younger people prefer coffee; older people prefer dinner at a restaurant
• For physical contact, it depends on how the date goes but a hug at minimum is generally appropriate
• Many people (35%) think being up to 10 minutes late is fine
• 34% think it’s appropriate discuss exes
  • Younger people think it’s more appropriate; older people think it’s not appropriate
• Many people (41%) think you should follow up the next day after the date
• Most people (65%) believe in ‘love at first sight’

We surveyed over 600 people on their dating deal breakers. We provided a list of 29 potential deal breakers and asked participants to select all that would end a relationship for them

Question’s we’ll answer:

• What are the most common deal breakers in dating?
• How does it differ by:
  • Gender
  • Relationship Status
  • Sexuality

Some key highlights:

• Heavy drinking, smoking cigarettes, and drug use were the most cited deal breakers.
• Women had slightly more deal breakers, on average, compared to men.
• Single people had A LOT more deal breakers, on average, than people in relationships.
• Heterosexual people had the most deal breakers, on average, compared to other sexualities.

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.

The Kiki-Bouba effect is a phenomenon where people tend to associate certain sounds with specific shapes. When shown a sharp, angular shape and a soft, rounded shape, and asked which is named "Kiki" and which is "Bouba," most people will label the sharp shape as "Kiki" and the rounded shape as "Bouba." This effect suggests that there is a universal, possibly innate connection between speech sounds and the visual appearance of objects.

This effect is seen across multiple languages and cultures and even observed in children and people born blind.

We connect the kiki/bouba effect to past research we’ve conducted on which boys names and girls names would win in a fight? We surveyed over 500 people per survey and gave them random name pairings and asked who would win in a fight (eg, “David vs. Anthony… who would win in a fight?”). We also connect it to another survey we ran on which letters would win in a fight. Similar setup (eg, “X vs. W… who would win in a fight?”)

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.