Badoo.com Finds the World’s Best Pick Up Line

Found : the world’s best pick-up line… by global study of 200,000 flirtations

“We have found the Holy Grail of online flirting”, says Badoo.com

How to woo a woman? Compliment her lips … But if she’s German, praise her skin 

Global study reveals which pick-up lines actually work and they’re NOT the ones men think

The study’s other findings are:

… If a woman is British, praise her legs

… If she’s American, French or Italian, praise her clothes

… If she’s Spanish, praise her hair 

… If she’s German or Canadian, praise her skin

… If she’s Russian, praise her nose

… If she’s Portuguese or Dutch, praise her ears (!)

A man trying to woo a woman will stand the best chance of success if he compliments her for having “beautiful lips”, according to a major new global study of pick-up lines used by men for online flirting.  Such, at least, is the advice if the man does not know the woman’s nationality. But if the woman is German, he will have most success by informing her, “You have beautiful skin”.  

These are the findings of a study conducted by Badoo.com (www.badoo.com), the world’s largest “social dating” network, with 87 million registered users worldwide. Badoo analysed the success rates of the opening lines used in nearly 200,000 [193,140] online flirtations in 10 languages over the course of one month. The line found to get the best response from women as a whole was, “You have beautiful lips”. However, other lines worked best in particular parts of the world.

So, if a woman is German or Canadain, a man should praise her skins. If she is Italian, French, American or Brazilian, he should praise her clothes. If she is British, he should praise her legs  (even though this was the second least successful compliment globally). If she’s Spanish or South American, he should praise her hair. Only if she’s Dutch or Portuguese, should he inform her: “You have beautiful ears”.

“This is a scientific study of which pick-up lines actually work”, says Lloyd Price, Badoo’s Director of Marketing. “We have found the Holy Grail of flirting.”

Badoo users seeking ideas for how to open a conversation with a member of the opposite sex were invited to use one of 12 different “ice-breakers” – in effect, pick-up lines. Each line comprised a simple statement complimenting a different aspect of a woman’s body or appearance. They ranged from “You have beautiful eyes” to “You have beautiful lips” to “You dress beautifully”. Badoo researchers then measured the success rate of each line in two ways: first, their success at prompting any response at all; second, their success at launching a longer conversation (one going back and forth at least four times). They then combined the two measurements to give an overall “Compliment Success Index” for each line.

The compliment with the best overall success score worldwide was “You have beautiful lips”. Next was “You dress beautifully”, followed by “You have beautiful eyes” and “You have beautiful hair”.

 Why Does Praising Lips Work Best?

So, why do women respond best to men praising their lips? 

First, because it’s bold, not cautious, says Jo Hemmings, a British behavioural psychologist and dating coach. “What many women want is for men to take the initiative and not be wishy-washy.” Second, because it seems more personal. “Women won’t have seen it so often before and are more likely to respond to something other than the normal cliché.  A lot of men on dating sites send a sort of generic message and women recognise something that hasn’t been customised for them.” 

Another theory comes from Dr David Givens, American author of the book, “Love Signals: A Practical Field Guide to the Body Language of Courtship”:

 “Women around the world focus a lot of attention in their lips”, says Givens. “From adolescence onwards, they cosmetically adorn their lips, applying lipstick and colours. They have been doing so since ancient Egypt.” 

The Most Over-Rated And Under-Rated Lines

The study’s findings also suggest that most men are currently getting things wrong, judging from the fact that the most commonly selected compliments were not also the most successful ones.

“You have beautiful eyes” was by far the most used compliment, picked by almost a quarter of all men, but only the third most successful.

The least used line was “You have beautiful ears”, which was also the second least effective line… except in the Netherlands and Portugal, where, for some reason, it proved the single most popular.  

“You have beautiful lips” – was not just the most effective line but also the most under-rated one, picked by just 7% of men.

So, why do so few men realise the power of praising a woman’s lips?

“Men generally tend to be not as observant as women; they are blind to a lot of these clues”, says David Givens. “Commenting on a woman’s eyes is clearly safer than mentioning her lips, which is more sexual as an ice-breaker”, says Jo Hemmings. “Men err on the side of caution.”

 “Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?”, asked Shakespeare of a beautiful woman in his 18^th sonnet. Now, women of the world have replied: “No, just tell me I have beautiful lips”.

 TABLE: Which Part Of A Woman’s Appearance Should A Man Praise?

Most Successful Line/Compliment By Country or Continent: 

LOCATION	MOST SUCCESSFUL LINE/COMPLIMENT
Worldwide	You have beautiful lips
USA	You dress beautifully
Canada	You have beautiful skin
UK	You have beautiful legs
Europe (as a whole)	You dress beautifully
South America	You have beautiful hair
Spain	You have beautiful hair
Germany	You have beautiful skin
France	You dress beautifully
Italy	You dress beautifully
Brazil	You dress beautifully
Portugal	You have beautiful ears
Sweden	You have a beautiful figure
Netherlands	You have beautiful ears
Belgium	You dress beautifully
Russia	You have a beautiful nose
Turkey	You have beautiful legs
Poland	You have beautiful arms

 

 

TABLE: Which part of a woman’s appearance should a man praise?

This table ranks compliments by their global success rate.

 

LINE/COMPLIMENT	Usage (%)	“Compliment Success Index”*
1. You have beautiful lips	7.1	100
2. You dress beautifully	8.8	97.9
3. You have beautiful eyes	23.2	97.8
4. You have beautiful hair	11.8	97.6
5. You have beautiful skin	14.1	95.0
6. You have a beautiful nose	9.5	94.1
7. You have a beautiful figure	7.9	91.2
8. You have beautiful arms	6.0	90.8
9. You have a beautiful mouth	12.5	89.5
10. You have beautiful ears	2.6	88.4
11. You have beautiful legs	5.2	87.2
12. You have a beautiful neck	4.1	84.8

* Explanation: “The Compliment Success Index” (CSI) reflects the combined success of a compliment in getting any response and in launching a prolonged conversation. A score of 100 does NOT indicate a 100% success rate but is just the base figure allocated to the most successful compliment.