New Delhi: A research revealed that when it comes to online dating, women do not like to make the first move but would rather send 'meek signals' in order to continue the chat.

Even if they are interested, the women still do not take a step forward to initiate the online chatting.

Weak signalling is the ability to visit or 'check out' a potential mate's profile so the potential mate knows the focus-user visited.

Women, cleverly would use flirting equivalents using the suggestive look or bodily gesture like a hair toss to one side or an over the shoulder glance, subjecting to innumerable interpretations and various misinterpretations.

It has also been found that users with anonymous identity viewed more number of profiles. It is also likely that they checks out same-sex and interracial matches.

But mostly they end up with fewer matches than non-anonymous counterparts.

The female users with anonymous browsing end up with an average of 14 percent fewer matches.

Men being on the bold and unreserved side, take the cue.

"Men send four times the number of messages than women do," said Akhmed Umyarov, assistant professor at University of Minnesota.

50,000 users were given free access to feature for a month to examine the impact of anonymous browsing telling them to view profiles of other users without leaving digital traces.

Professor Ravi Bapna said, "Even though people are willing to pay to become anonymous in online dating sites, we find that the feature is detrimental to the average users."

Future academic analysis on online dating can be followed using this study published in the journal Management Science.

Such experiments can prove to be useful in online matching platforms, improving the consumer experience. But experiments are to be done ethically, the researchers added.(IANS)