Key questions to unlock love

30 September 2014 - 10:18 By ©The Daily Telegraph
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Teenagers kissing. File photo
Teenagers kissing. File photo
Image: http://www.autismafter16.com

One of the founders of dating website OkCupid has revealed the two questions you should ask on a first date if you want to make sure you are a good match.

It sounds like the sort of line better suited to the opening of a horror film, but "Do you like scary movies?" is one of the best questions to ask on a first date, according to Christian Rudder, who set up the dating service with two friends a decade ago.

Rudder said the question was one of the best ways of telling whether you were likely to end up with a long-term partner.

The other question he recommends is: "Have you ever travelled alone to another country?"

"In respect of about three-quarters of the long-term couples OkCupid has brought together, both people have answered these two questions the same way, either both 'yes' or both 'no'," Rudder wrote in a newspaper article in which he described what he had learned in 10 years working on the site.

"That's much, much higher than the expected rate, since both questions evenly split our user base," he said.

"In fact, successful couples agree on scary movies - either they both like them or they both hate them - about as often as they agree on the existence of God."

Rudder, who has led OkCupid's analytics team since 2009, also compiled a list of 30 words that appeared disproportionately often in British users' profiles.

Haribo, wot, wasters, trousers, trainers, bloke, moaning, lecturer and bolognese all made the cut.

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