"Can't You Pay a Bit More?"... Survey Shows Men and Women Differ on Fair Way to Split Dating Expenses

Average Spending Per Date: 115,000 Won, with Men at 145,800 Won

Gender Differences in Perceptions of the Causes of Financial Conflict

A recent survey has found that, when dating, single men tend to pay about 60,000 won more per date than single women. The survey also revealed significant differences in perception between men and women regarding the causes of conflicts related to dating expenses.

On September 12, matchmaking company Gayeon released the results of a related survey conducted last month on 506 single men and women aged 25 to 39. This poll was carried out by the professional research agency Opensurvey, with a confidence level of 80% and a margin of error of ±2.85 percentage points.

The results showed that the average cost of a single date was 115,000 won. By gender, men reported an average expenditure of 145,800 won, which is 61,800 won more than the average expenditure of women, at 84,000 won. When asked about the appropriate share of costs, the average perceived ratio was 5.96 for men and 4.04 for women. Overall, there is a clear perception that it is appropriate for men to bear more of the dating expenses than women.

17.8% of respondents said they had actually experienced conflict due to dating expenses. In contrast, 55.7% replied they had never faced such conflict, and 26.5% responded that they had no experience with dating or that it was not applicable to them. Broken down by gender, 19.7% of men and 15.9% of women reported experiencing conflicts over sharing expenses.

The biggest cause of conflict was “one party pays very little or not at all,” which accounted for 37.8% of responses. This was followed by “differences in consumption preferences or values regarding preferred date courses” at 34.4%, “splitting expenses 50:50 despite income disparities” at 18.9%, and “differences of opinion over opening or managing a joint dating account” at 7.8%.

However, men and women see the causes of conflict differently. For men, the leading cause was “differences in consumption preferences or values regarding date courses,” cited by 48%. In contrast, the most common response among women was “one party pays very little or not at all,” at 40%.

The second most cited cause also differed by gender. For men, “one party pays very little or not at all” ranked second at 36%. For women, it was “splitting expenses 50:50 despite income disparities,” at 30%.

A representative from Gayeon explained that men generally felt more dissatisfaction with differences in consumption preferences or date course choices, while women were more dissatisfied with cost-sharing issues. They recommended open conversations about consumption habits and expense sharing at the beginning of a relationship to help reduce conflicts.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.