Successful Personal Ads: Gender Differences and Similarities in Offers,Stipulations, and Outcomes

Content analysis of 281 newspaper personal ads placed mainly by older singles revealed that men often stipulated looks, and women often stipulated status. Advertisers who offered looks or status were the more demanding in their stipulations. A subsample of 55 women and 59 men completed mailed questionnaires about outcomes. Women received far more replies than did men. Reply rates were correlated with advertisers' satisfaction and the number of people they met. However, offers of looks and status were best weakly related to reply rates and other variables, apparently because this market was saturated with such offers. Examination of the most and least successful ads suggested that the writer's age was important. Relatively younger women (M = 35.0 years old) and older men (M = 43.9 years old) received high returns. Finally, a similarity across gender was that 65% of the women and 62% of the men met with at least one respondent.