single people may have a list of attributes they are looking for in a partner when they embark on the dating game, from that elusive ‘spark’ to a hot body now a new study has revealed that playfulness comes high on the list of desirable attributes in a long term partner experts say that a sense of fun is more important to many people than whether someone has a degree or is religious play to win hearts: a new study has revealed that playfulness comes high on the list of desirable attributes in a partner (illustrated with a stock image)   just behind friendliness, intelligence and a sense of humour  research  by the university of zurich revealed that playfulness is important to both sexes – just behind friendliness, intelligence and a sense of humour they also found that naturally playful people deem humour, a laid back attitude and creativity more important in partners than their more serious peers they described playful adults as those having a love of wordplay who enjoy teasing, people who are spontaneous and will take on a challenge lightheartedly and those who play the fool, for example while playfulness comes in many forms, little research has been conducted into the trait and how desirable it is to others study found playful people deem humour, a laid back attitude and creativity more important in partners than their more serious peers (stock image) the new study builds on the research of anthropologist garry chick from pennsylvania state university, who developed a theory that playfulness in adults is a desirable trait in sexual selection this is because it indicates to women, a low level of aggression in men and to men, vitality in the fairer sex rené proyer and lisa wagner from the department of psychology at the university of zurich, have shown that playfulness also plays an important role in the choice of a partner in the european culture they asked 327 young adults from germany, switzerland and austria to examine a list of 16 characteristics and indicate whether or not they found them desirable in a potential long term partner the results showed that men and women largely agreed in their orders of preference, although there were differences in individual ratings, according to the american journal of play for example, women found a sense of humour more important than men and men found an exciting personality more important than women friendliness, intelligence, humour and a fun tendency came at the top of the list playfulness ranked mid table, although not all that far behind the favourites ‘therefore, this personality trait also seems important for the choice of partner – at least more so that the partner having a degree, good genes or being religious,’ said dr proyer they also found that participants who described themselves as playful also valued playfulness, humour, a laid back attitude, a fun tendency and creativity among potential partners themselves study volunteers who were in relationships assessed themselves as more playful than those who were currently single ‘although we should be cautious while interpreting the data, this could be an indication that playful people are actually perceived as more attractive partners or that playfulness increasingly develops in the relationship,’ dr proyer added keeping your online dating profile humble is the key to success, researchers have revealed  keeping your online dating profile humble is the key to success, researchers have revealed they found that people who are looking for love online are less apt to trust a person with a flashy profile instead, they prefer a potential partner who appears not only successful, but humble and real as well andy high of the university of iowa said: 'we found people want to contact a person who appears to be accurate in what they are saying about themselves online 'it's tough when it comes to dating profiles because we want someone who seems like an amazing person, but we also hopefully will have a relationship with this individual, so we want them to exist' the team found most people in their study were drawn to individuals whose profiles were positive but not over the top glowing more importantly, participants preferred people whose online persona could be clearly traced to a real person that means people want details, not broad generalities, especially about where a prospective love interest works and what he or she does for a living
university of zurich us
university of zurich study revealed importance of playfulness in a partner . trait ranked just below friendliness, intelligence and a sense of humour . playful people deem humour and a laid back attitude particularly important . builds on us study that showed playulness indicates to women a low level of aggression in men  and vitality in women, to men 