Is the Lunch Date the Go-to First Date?

Before online dating became more popular, the majority of first dates tended to be somewhat formal. Dinner and drinks ruled the day and more casual dates were reserved for later on. But with the popularity of online dating, the way people think about the first date has changed. Or has it?

To find out what date ideas are the most popular with online daters we looked at data from the online dating site Zoosk, that has over 38 million members worldwide. As it turns out, the lunch date may be the new go-to casual date idea.

Here’s what they found:

– Messages with the word lunch got 25% more responses than the average.

– Coffee dates were the least popular online date idea with 32% fewer responses.

– Mentioning a specific spot may help you out. Messages with the word restaurant got 8% more responses.

– Same goes for picking a place to get drinks. Messages with bar got 9% more responses.

– Going for the dinner date may not be a good call. It resulted in 13% fewer messages.

– Asking someone out for a drink was more neutral with only 3% fewer messages.

For those who are fitting online dating (and all dating for that matter) into a busy work and social life, giving up a Friday night or committing to skipping a workout to meet for drinks after work may not be the most desirable first date option.

This may be part of the reason online daters are gravitating towards the lunch date. It’s casual, it’s a good chance to sit down and talk with someone, and you don’t have to rearrange your whole schedule to make it happen.

So what do you do when a lunch date just isn’t an option for you? (Or you’re just not a lunch date kind of person.) In light of the data, one idea is keeping things open. Find a good place to meet and then once you get a feel for each other decide where you’d like to take things from there.

But it’s also good to remember that data is just data. Every person is different. If you’ve been chatting about your favorite micro-brews, asking someone to the new brewery in town is going to be a great date idea. If you’re not sure what that first date should be, that’s when you may want to try lunch and see how it works for you.