The concept of ‘The One’ is as old as time itself. Growing up, we were lulled to sleep listening to fairy tales at bed time, and we fixated on films pushing the narrative that someday, our prince or princess would come (we’re looking at you, Snow White). Years later, even though we now understand these scenarios were fictitious, it turns out that a lot of us still have the lingering belief that there’s only one person out there for us.
In a survey run by Badoo, we found out that a whopping 91% of UK daters feel under pressure to find ‘The One.’
Of the people we spoke to, 47% said that their family were the main source of pressure, and 43% said that social media feeds the belief that they have one person in the world for them. This idea of making it work with just one ‘The One’ can make us feel that we need to be our ‘best selves’ while dating, instead of just who we really are. So much so, in fact, that 17% of daters admit to having been dishonest in the past because they were afraid of rejection.
When we did a deep-dive into what qualities people were looking for in The One,’ the results weren’t surprising.
(73%) of people see loyalty as the most important quality, followed by honesty (70%) and - obviously - a good sense of humour was high up on the list of requirements, too (68%). Turns out, we’re all searching for similar things. With that in mind, we decided to enlist the help of math expert and Cambridge PHD student Bobby Seagull to find out how many The Ones we actually have.
“I’ve always thought that there are many possible ‘Ones’ out there for all of us. The concept of just one perfect match out of billions of people on the planet is mathematically highly unlikely” said Bobby.
After crunching the numbers, the results were in: UK daters have an average of 48 potential ‘The Ones.’ That’s 48 people who will appreciate you for your real self, in all your imperfect glory!
Finally, the age-old myth of ‘The One’ has been busted. If this revelation gets you jazzed to date again (it should), you’re not alone – 47% of UK daters feel excited about dating in 2021. That’s a whole lot of people who are ready to meet you.
“Every individual is different so there is sadly no one hard-and-fast rule,” said Bobby. “But being open and honest should mathematically increase the daters’ probability of finding a match.”
Hear that? You don’t need to worry about being someone you’re not in order to find people you want to date, because the people you’re meant to be with will want you just the way you are. Putting pressure on yourself to find ‘The One’ isn’t just unnecessarily stressful, it can do more harm than good and cause you to overlook people who might be a really brilliant match. By being honest, kind, and communicating your wants and needs, you’re far more likely to find someone who complements you.
So, once and for all, let’s take the pressure off our search for ‘The One’. We have plenty of opportunities to find a great partner – and we think that’s pretty magical.