Men remain single because their social skills have not evolved to meet today’s standards. Forced and arranged marriages made up for the individual differences in the past, making it possible for unattractive men to find long-term partners.

Today, however, men have difficulty flirting, and lack the ability to impress women, according to a study conducted by Menelaos Apostolou of the University of Nicosia in Cyprus.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Evolutionary Psychological Science, and titled “Why Men Stay Single? Evidence from Reddit,” Apostolou’s study is, in fact, an analysis of comments submitted to Reddit. Apostolou analyzed more than 6,700 comments left by men on Reddit, which is, as the Inquisitr reported, the third most popular website in the United States, and the sixth most popular website in the world.

As Apostolou pointed out, Gallup research indicates that up to 35 percent of people in Europe, and the United States are single. The University of Nicosia in Cyprus conducted this study to examine the reasons men stay single.

In the analysis, the researcher filtered out comments which were irrelevant to the question asked, as well as comments with vague meaning. Responses from women were also disregarded. The responses were then classified in 43 categories. Below are some examples.

Low self-esteem

Not interested in relationships

Poor flirting skills

Introverted

Bad experience from previous relationships

No available women

Poor looks

After the responses were classified and put into categories, University of Nicosia examined their frequency, in order to get a measure of importance.

“Poor looks” topped the hierarchical list. The “low-self esteem” category was the second highest in response frequency, and then “low effort” (e.g. “I don’t put any effort or make any moves.”). “Not interested in relationships” was the third most populated category (comments such as “I like my freedom” prevailed). “Poor flirting skills” was the fourth in the hierarchy, and “Introverted” was the fifth.

The study, therefore, identified 43 reasons men stay single. In a press release published on Springer, Apostolou stated the following.

“Single modern men often lack flirting skills because in an ancestral pre-industrial context, the selection pressures on mechanisms which regulated mating effort and choosiness were weak. Such skills are needed today, because in post-industrial societies mate choice is not regulated or forced, but people have to instead find mates on their own.”

Like all studies, this one has some limitations, the researcher noted. Although it provides data from a large number of men, the data is made up of comments submitted anonymously to a popular website. Additionally, the data consists of the reasons that men think that they are single, which may not necessarily be the true reasons they are single.