8 Charts That Expose What Women Really Want

Summary

The video uses dating-site data and research findings to argue that attractiveness is influenced by more than height or income. Its central message is that some traits affect attention or relationship outcomes on average, but none determines an individual’s dating prospects.

Main findings

• Income and age: On OKCupid, higher-income men generally received more messages than lower-income men. The presenter says the difference was much less pronounced for men aged 22 and under, suggesting that income may matter more as men get older. He stresses that these are averages, not a rule that lower-income men cannot find partners.
• Height and attention: Taller men received more messages on average, with roughly 6′–6′5″ described as a favorable range. The presenter reports that a 5′7″ man received about 20% fewer messages than a 6′3″ man, while men 5′4″ and shorter received around half as many messages as men around 6′. He also notes that men may exaggerate their height on dating profiles.
• Height and sexual experience: Despite receiving fewer messages, the shortest men in the cited data reportedly had only about one fewer sexual partner, on average, than the tallest men. The presenter suggests that effort or other factors might help explain this, but says the data cannot establish why.
• Phone type and reported partners: Men with iPhones reportedly reported about four more sexual partners than men with Android phones; women with iPhones reported about six more. The video speculates that phone type could relate to income or other characteristics, but does not establish a cause.
• Strength and attractiveness: A meta-analysis involving more than 177,000 participants reportedly found strength to be a stronger predictor of whether women considered a man attractive than height—about six times as predictive as height alone. The presenter notes that strength, height, and body shape can be related.
• Weight loss and marriage outcomes: A University of Pittsburgh study of people who underwent bariatric surgery reportedly found that men’s likelihood of marrying within five years rose from 7% in the general comparison group to 18% among surgery patients. The same study reportedly found five-year divorce rates of 4% in the general population and 8% among married men who had bariatric surgery. The presenter proposes that major lifestyle changes or changed expectations could contribute, but says the reasons are uncertain.
• Penis size and expectations: The video reports a measured average erect length of 5.2 inches and a top-1% length of 6.7 inches. It says self-reported averages are about an inch larger than measured averages. In a preference task using plastic models, women’s average ideal was reportedly 6.4 inches. The presenter cautions that women’s guesses about size also tended to be about an inch too high.

Important caveats

These are group-level findings, not guarantees about any individual. Several results are correlations or comparisons that do not show what caused the outcomes. In particular, phone type may stand in for other traits, and the bariatric-surgery findings do not prove that weight loss itself caused changes in marriage or divorce rates.

Speakers and sources featured

• Speaker: One male narrator/presenter; no other speaking voices are identifiable in the subtitles.
• Sources and research mentioned by the presenter:
  • OKCupid data on messages by income, age, and height, and reported sexual partners by height and phone type.
  • A meta-analysis of more than 177,000 participants on predictors of male attractiveness.
  • A University of Pittsburgh study of bariatric-surgery patients and marriage/divorce outcomes.
  • Researchers’ measurements of erect penis length and a study asking women to select preferred sizes using plastic models.