Flowers’ popularity down, survey says

by Che Palicte
ALMA UY, the first lady of Tagum City, prefers a romantic text message coming from millionaire husband Mayor Rey Uy, rather than expensive gifts to mark today’s Valentine’s day and similar special occasions.
“For me, a text message coming from Rey is also enough for Valentine’s Day,” she bared yesterday at the weekly Club 888 forum at The Marco Polo Davao.
Mrs. Uy’s statement jibed with the findings of the Institute of Popular Opinion of the University of Mindanao discussed in the Club 888 media forum taken up ahead of Tagum Musikahan which she was promoting.
The IPO-UM study on Dabawenyos’ perception of love in its various manifestations was discussed by Dr. Ma. Linda Arquiza, IPO-UM executive director and Dr. Adrian Tamayo, the institute’s economic specialist.
Dr. Arquiza said that the interviews conducted with 1,120 scientifically selected respondents revealed that 57.26 percent of women in Davao are delighted to receive romantic messages sent by their loved ones, although almost the same number of women (57.65 percent) are still impressed with expensive gifts.
The survey conducted last January 26-February 7 was done on respondents aged 18 and above using a margin of error of five percent and a confidence interval of 95 percent.
Giving flowers less popular
The study likewise indicated that 55. 68 percent of women find kissing and dating as an important part of the relationship, 49.59 percent say “I love you” and the least preferred expression of love is the giving of flowers at 45.90 percent.
Not knowing about the changing preferences of women, the survey indicated that men continue giving of flowers as an expression of love (54.10 percent), kissing and dating (44.32 percent) as an important part of the relationship. Many men believe that uttering the words “I love you” (52.30 percent) is still one of the best expressions of affection.
Dr. Tamayo said that men express their love by serving (43.05 percent), second in their list is sending romantic messages through cards, letters or text message (41.94 percent). Giving of expensive gifts is the least with (41.84 percent).
Love means sacrifice
To an ordinary Dabawenyo their view on love is: ultimately a sacrifice (61.17 percent), understanding (50.33 percent), displaying deep respect (46.14 percent), merciful (43.68 percent), forgiving (31.69 percent) and romantic (19.54 percent).
When the survey respondent men and women were asked what attributes they are looking for in potential partners, they ranked responsible as top attribute with 67.90 percent; sympathetic and serious (64.94 percent), religious (57.39 percent), honest (41.21 percent), good-looking (46.06 percent), romantic blended with sense of humor (32 percent), wealthy (27.42 percent) and witty and intelligent (27.42 percent).
Mercifully, “Dabawenyos are not particular about wealth but instead they want real love,” Arquiza said.
Attributes women
want in their men
The study also found that Dabawenyas are more attracted to men who have a sense of humor (55.90 percent), wit and intelligence (54.90 percent), romantic nature (52.05 percent), and religious (50.93 percent).
“Women believe that being religious means strong in faith and having a good heart and would make for longer and more stable relationship,” Arquiza added.
The characteristics that men desire in women are: well-off (57.49%), responsible (54.66 percent), sympathetic (52.97 percent), good looking (49.50 percent) and religious (48.93 percent).
Dr. Tamayo said that men want a romantic partner (47.95 percent) and the least two are wit and intelligence (45.60 percent) and (44.10 percent) for sense of humor.
“As we can see from the survey, the top answers of the women are the least answers for men, so it simply shows that they both have opposite views when it comes to love,” Arquiza added.
The survey also revealed that 12 out of 100 men admitted to cheating while in a relationship. However the same percentage of women also admitted to committing the same “crime”. About the same percentage of men and women claim that they say “I love you” to their partners always to reinforce their action.