In Chicago, Men Are 4x More Likely Than Women to Howl Into the Missed Connections Void

Missed Connections is one of the most popular areas on Craigslist, and not coincidentally, it is also one of the most depressing.

The newest data, run by independent analyst Ilia Blinderman, shows that Tinder and other location-based love apps have not rid us of our fantasy of the love that got away. Blinderman also notes that recent research suggests that women are better at noticing when someone’s flirting, but men are perhaps seeing every interaction with another person as a potential romance that could have been:

A recent study replication suggested that while women could detect flirtation with relative accuracy, men tended to label all interactions with women as “she wants me.”

Men and women also post on Missed Connections at different times:

Women tend to start slowly, leaving their posts until they clocked off work (with a responsible peak around lunchtime). Men, meanwhile, seem to have little interest in workplace propriety, and began their lovelorn postings in earnest soon after lunch is over.

Blinderman also points out that men are more likely to post missed connections ads—at rates of 4:1 in some locales such as Chicago—than woman are. Women’s ads tend to be longer; men appear to be casting a wide net.

Here’s some more fascinating information about our posting habits, courtesy of Blinderman:

Women looking to connect with strangers also tend to be younger than their male counterparts, with mean ages in their mid- to late-20s, while men posting missed connections tend to be aged between 33 and 37.

He explains that at length in the post.

Blinderman does not discuss something I suspect to be prominent in the Missed Connections section: people who post ads in the hope that others will find them beautifully-written and tear-jerking and just email the poster on the off-chance that they, too, could connect.

His whole post is fascinating: I highly suggest you give it a read. Then, probably, log off Craigslist.