Three little words can be very difficult to express, especially it seems through text messaging, and Irish men are the most unromantic of the bunch, claims new research by Edelman.
If you thought Valentine’s Day wasn’t stressful enough, what with the mountain of chocolates and flowers you plan to purchase, new research from Edelman is putting Irish lads in particular in the spotlight.
The survey found that 67pc of Irish men wouldn’t even send a text message to their partners on Valentine ‘s Day if they weren’t able to spend the day with them, but curiously there are no figures on the women’s texting habits.
How do Celtic men compare to the global average? Well, on average, 42pc of men just aren’t bothered to text their other half on Valentine’s Day.
Men more comfortable with public displays of affection?
Not bothered or reluctant? In comparison to women, men are actually more comfortable at expressing affection in public rather than one-to-one because 70pc more men than women quizzed in this survey, which took part in 41 countries, said they were more likely to tweet their love. Aw.
The old-fashioned talkybox is still popular though: 94pc of male respondents and 96pc of female respondents said they would most likely make a romantic Valentine’s Day call to their love.
And this is where the difference between the sexes appears again: 59pc more women than men would be willing to make a Skype video call to their significant other while 67pc more were wiling to send a personal video message by email.
Virtual Valentine’s Day gifts
And 76pc more women were willing to waste money on non-existent virtual gifts on Facebook and the like, which goes to show that men like to keep it short, sweet and to the point while women probably go a little overboard.
“While both men and women are turning to technology to ‘make up’ for a Valentine’s Day absence, men are more likely to broadcast their devotion via a one-to-many communications platform, while women prefer the more discrete one-to-one approach,” said Piaras Kelly, account director with Edelman Dublin.
A fun survey but a psychologist’s dream perhaps? A tweet is non-committal, easy to put out and doesn’t ever have to say anything more than 140 characters while Skype is intense, requires somewhat of a performance and can go on for hours!
By Marie Boran
Photo: Most Irish men wouldn’t bother texting their sweethearts on 14 February if they were unable to spend the day with them, a survey suggests
