Economy boosts online dating

Housing prices are plummeting. Jobs are evaporating. And the economy is a mess.

But singles are wading into the online dating pool in record numbers, giving virtual matchmakers their best traffic figures in years - and giving users even better odds for finding a snuggle buddy, a fling or the One.

In addition to "This Cougar is looking for her prey" and other bootylicious come-ons, lonely hearts are now headlining their posts with more somber come-hithers, such as "it's a gloomy time of year and I'm not talking about the rain" or "need hot girlfriend, will provide food."

Craigslist personals postings and eHarmony.com registrations have each seen 20 percent increases in 2008, even though daters are spending less on each night out. Match.com memberships were 22 percent higher in December than they were during the same period last year.

Even more interesting, eHarmony and Match.com reported especially high traffic on days when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted.

"Stressful times can have a big effect on people's desire to be in relationships," said Gian Gonzaga, an eHarmony research scientist. "When people are feeling stressed about the economy and feeling stressed about their love lives, they're more likely to want to be in a relationship than when they're not feeling stressed."

Gonzaga was part of the eHarmony team that analyzed the results of a new relationship-anxiety survey conducted by Opinion Research; 92 percent of 1,092 respondents reported feeling stressed about the economy. How does that manifest in individuals' desire for long-term relationships? About 19 percent of unmarried men and 25 percent of unmarried women said they wanted one even more.

Jamie Fields is one of those women. The 42-year-old from Santa Monica, Calif., rejoined Match.com the weekend after Thanksgiving, having broken up with the guy she'd been seeing the last few months.

Although Fields had attempted to find men in the real world, the last few times she'd been to wine bars with a girlfriend in the hopes of meeting someone new, she said, "We were like, ‘Where are all the people?' There aren't any."

For Fields, it was the relatively recent void of people in public places that led her to spend more time with her keyboard. But for a lot of other Americans, it's decreased wealth - both real and perceived - that's keeping them home, inspiring them to spend less money and more quality time with their computers.

Money worries are making them even more picky. Although Match .com reported a 50 percent increase in profile views from November to December, a recent survey of 1,500 members found that 84 percent of them were "being more selective about first dates in today's economy."

That tentativeness is extending beyond a singleton's willingness to seal the deal and make a first date. It's also manifesting as a hesitancy to reach for the check at the end of an outing.

Wendy Rice, a 33-year-old chef from Hollywood, said she'd also experienced an unusually high frequency of daters playing "chicken" with the bill.

A "guy took me out and said he forgot his wallet." Rice didn't believe him.

"You left your house. You picked me up. You put gas in your car. You bought yourself cigarettes," she said.

Yet less money doesn't have to result in bad dates, psychologist Diana Kirschner said.
"When there's less money available to go on fancier dates, people can have a very simple connection that's even more fulfilling," she said.

Doing things such as going for a walk means there's more talking. And where "there's more talking, there's more sharing, so there's intimacy. There's more closeness. You wind up being more real with each other," she said. "It's not about impressing the other person, because you can't (afford) to impress them."