It’s a staple of jokes, fiction, and early evening worries; but there might just be some benefit to the concept of having a wingman when it comes to dating. When surveyed, nearly half the people asked recently confirmed that they believed that having someone by their side when out on the town hugely increases their chances of successfully finding a date.
But what do people find so useful about having someone along for the ride? Well of course there are the practical considerations, with someone being there to let you know if you’ve got something attached to your shoe or a label sticking out of your clothes, but by far the biggest benefit seems to be for your confidence.
In particular, having a wingman seems to give people more confidence to approach people – and in particular to approach people for the first time. For the most part this seems to come from a mixture of how a wingman can hype you up to go and approach someone, and how if it doesn’t work out, that you still have someone to have a drink with while you get your spirits up for another try.
Choosing your wingman needs to be done with a degree of thought. There seem to be three main considerations to bear in mind. Firstly they should be someone that you can have fun with. Secondly, they should be someone who makes you feel great; and thirdly you should not feel that you are in competition with them.
This last point seems to be critical for success, because nearly half the people asked did say that at some point or another, their wingman had stolen the show. So that end it seems that the best approach is to either have someone as your wingman who is the opposite gender, or who has vastly different taste in dates to you.
So if you’re looking forward to trying out a singles party or event sometime soon, make sure you’re properly supported and partner up with someone else. You can then both act as each other’s wingman through the course of the evening – and remember to keep things simple. Your wingman is there to boost your confidence enough that you can go over and introduce yourself – not to do the work for you!