I analyzed the ads and headlines of postings in the w4m and m4w section Austin Craigslist personal section. I looked at all the postings for 44 straight days

We can’t tell how effective these ads are, but they do give us some clue about what men and women operate. It also gives us some clue about what each gender thinks the opposite sex is looking for.

Volume

Men posted over 4 times as many ads as women did (522 and 2,252). A couple of theories on why the large difference are women feel less safe on an internet forum than men might. Men are expected to pursue women in society. Easier to post an ad looking than ask a woman in real life. Women get hit on all the time so they don’t need to post an ad, but men have run out of women to hit on.

Day of the Week

Men and women posted at roughly the same rate as each other throughout the week.

Women are 3% more likely to post an ad on Tuesday and men were 2.5% more likely to post on Friday.

Age





Average age for a woman = 30 Average age for a man = 32

I was surprised that men were more likely than women to not post their age.

Words

This is where it gets really interesting. I looked for specific words in the ads. Then we can compare how frequently each gender uses a given word or set of words.

Women use these words more frequently than men (In order of increasing frequency difference)

Friend – 10.3% more frequently than men

Long term, Long-term, or ltr – 23% more frequently than men

Cute – 43.8% more frequently than men

Date – 46.4% more frequently than men

Democrat, liberal, or progressive – 64.3% more frequently than men

Herpes – 72.6% more frequently than men

Funny, humor, laugh, or witty – 79.6% more frequently than men

Aggie or A&M – 115.7% more frequently than men

Christian – 127.1% more frequently than men

Single parent, single mom, single dad – 138.4% more frequently than men

Overweight, BBW, “not skinny”, thick, or plus size – 273.2% more frequently than men

Job – 2,606.2% more frequently than men

Men use these words more frequently than women (In order of increasing frequency difference)

Conservative or Republican – .4% of men used one of these words but no women did

Sex – 5% more frequently than women

UT or Longhorns – 22.9% more frequently than women

420, weed, or marijuana – 23.4% more frequently than women

Cuddle – 82.1% more frequently than women

Physical – 110.4% more frequently than women

Handsome – 115.2% more frequently than women

Tonight – 120.8% more frequently than women

Athletic – 280.1% more frequently than women

Men and women used the following word at almost identical rates

Attractive – men and women both used this word in 11% of their ads

What does it all mean? Do that many women really have herpes? Can unemployed men get a date? What are men talking about cuddling so much? I’ll leave it to the commenters and other bloggers to dissect. I’d love to hear what you think.