“Oh you know Johnny? Then let’s get naughty.” Whether it’s for one night or forever, we’re more likely to choose mates who have Facebook friends in common with us. This comes according to a new study by Coffee Meets Bagel, a startup that shows you a suggestion of someone to date each day and connects you if you both fancy each other.
Out of Coffee Meets Bagel’s 44,000 matches, people with mutual friends are 37.2% more likely to both give each other the thumbs up. Women are much more influenced by the mutual friends effect. And there’s even a magic number of acquaintances in common that makes you 90% more likely to want to get frisky…
Turns out four is the ideal number of mutual friends, almost doubling the chances two people will dig each other. Any number still increases your chance of crushing on someone, but it seems like less than four and someone might be sketchy, more and things could get messy if your date is a disaster.
One caveat: all these findings shared exclusively with TechCrunch are just trends, not necessarily statistically sound data, but they’re still something singles should think about.
For guys, being linked by the social graph isn’t too big of a deal. It only makes dudes give the go-ahead 10% more often. But the effect is much stronger for women, who may be more concerned with safety and comfort. They’re 29% more likely to give someone a shot if they have friends in common.
But since it takes two to tango (or do Da Dip) matches where both people approve of each other 37% more frequent if they’ve got mutual friends. All this data is good news for the slew of social dating services that purposefully pair you people you’re one-degree removed from, like Yoke, TheComplete.me, and Circl.es.
So next time you’re gonna head to the bar in search of that special someone, you might actually be better off doing some Facebook friend of friend stalking. But please, message them. Don’t just creepily Like their vacation photos.
If you happen to live in New York City, you could also give Coffee Meets Bagel a shot
