The Price of a Great Date
🌶️ Mild Charm 👯 69-ing Women 🚀 Astronomical Gifts
Hey Moonshot,
He thinks I’m a star. Literally.
Recently, I found myself standing next to a gentleman holding a single red rose. We were about to have adjacent dating experiences. I was there to meet 40 singles for a 3-course dinner. He was there to wine and dine a single lady. Was it a first date? Was a big question about to be popped? I watched with curiosity.
Moments later, she slid into his booth and he proudly handed over the flower. She seemed… pleased. Not delighted. Not surprised. Just mildly charmed. And it got me thinking about where we stand with gifting these days. How many people are bringing gifts on dates and are they even expected?
So, fancying myself as a disciple of the sexologist Alfred Kinsey, I fired up my Instagram research lab and issued a poll. More than 1,500 people voted on what they thought:
Gifts are required on dates: 2% of women, 5% of men
Not required: 69% of women, 40% of men
Nice if possible: 29% of women, 33% of men
What caught my attention was the 29% delta between the sexes on gifts not being required. The majority of women don’t require a gift, while fewer men say the same. That creates an expectation gap. And, given modern dating is filled with nonsense (ghosts, catfish, chlamydia etc), unexpected effort is often the most memorable kind.
As for the gifts themselves, responses ranged from chocolate and books to guitars built in the year of her birth. While that last item seems excessive (sir, was that really your gift on a first date?), the spectrum proves there’s space for all wallets.
Alongside sharing my findings, I added a tongue-in-cheek list of items I would personally be delighted to receive – dark chocolate, airline vouchers, and stars named after me. I chortled and moved on with my dating adventures.
Then, this past weekend, I went on a first date. We greeted one another, ordered coffees and, in true British form, started talking about the weather. He then handed me a set of documents. Very official documents. The kind that are apparently filed in vaults in Switzerland.
He’d gifted me a star.
A star!
The luminous sphere of plasma formally known as PiscesRa0h34m28sD15°14, has been officially redesignated ‘Candilicious’ (my social media nom de plume). Screw small gestures, this was a grand act of thoughtfulness.
Turns out, we had first matched around the same time I was running my highly scientific gifting experiment and he had paid attention. He had taken my silly little wish list to heart and registered my name in the cosmos. To say I was delighted is an understatement. It was thoughtful, generous, and, best of all, humorous. He understood the assignment (and I said yes to a second date.)
And on the other side of the coin - men who get it really, really wrong.
In conclusion, following rigorous qualitative and quantitative analysis, researchers find that gifts in dating are not prerequisites, but they do generate disproportionately high emotional returns. Even modest efforts have been proven to correlate positively with romantic interest. Results therefore suggest there’s no time like the present to reach for the stars. Literally.
With love & other rubbish,
Candice
…and other rubbish
Go speed dating, but get ready to wrestle
How freaky are you?
Lawrence of A Labia
Good morning, it’s time to eat
Gosh, what big muscles he has
She said, he said
“Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs. This is the principle behind lotteries, dating, and religion.”
Scott Adams
You made it this far, can you tap the heart? 👇 It helps me grow.