By Amy Eisen, News Correspondent 

Congratulations to all male brown-haired, blue-eyed, non-smoking social drinking and college graduates with athletic builds who make between $100,000 and $150,000 a year. According to a recent survey, these qualities define Boston’s “Perfect Man.”

WhatsYourPrice.com, the world’s largest dating-auction website, conducted a survey of more than 40,000 female members across 21 cities. The women were asked to rank the qualities they look for when deciding whether or not to accept a first date. The seven categories included: Income, education, body type, hair color, eye color, drinking and smoking.

Women across the country voted, and the 21 cities all came out with different results. The qualities were broken down and weighted by importance. The percentages represent the chance of a woman accepting a first date from a man with the corresponding quality.

A Boston women’s definition of the perfect man is as follows:
1. Income (33 percent) – $100 K -$150 K
2. Education (21 percent) – Bachelor’s degree
3.  Eye Color (16 percent) – Blue
4. Drinking (14 percent) – Social Drinker
5. Hair Color (9 percent) – Brown
6. Body Type (5 percent) – Athletic
7. Smoking (2 percent) – Non-Smoker.

According to the survey, Boston women value income, education and eye color, in that order.
While women in Boston and six other cities including Washington, D.C. and Miami rated income as the number one quality, the national average placed education as the top.

The national top three were education, income and body type.

Some rankings seemed to represent the stereotype of that city. For example, New York and L.A. had body type as the number one quality, which ranked a lowly six out of seven in Boston.

“Education being high on the list makes sense, since Boston has good schools and education,” sophomore health science major Linda Wiinberg said. “I could see body type being most important in L.A., but I still think income and body type are shallower than habits and education. I don’t think eye color really matters.”

Nashville stood alone with hair color ranked as the most important.

While Boston did place income as the most important, the range that the female voters chose ($100-$150K) was far more humble than in other cities. Casino-driven Las Vegas women, for example, wanted their man to have an income between $500,000 and $1,000,000.
While there’s no objective way to judge the perfect man, WhatsYourPrice.com chose these categories because they were, indeed, objective and measurable.

“We can’t measure intangibles, such as engaging or shy, so we don’t want this to be a measuring stick as much as an interesting study,” Leroy Velasquez, the public relations manager for WhatsYourPrice.com said. “It reveals what the perfect man is as much as we can measure. All of these attributes, though, don’t make or break a first date. We just wanted to gage general perception of what makes a man important.”

Some Northeastern students seem to agree that a single quality can be a deciding factor.
“Although you may try not to judge people, you do. If someone has a bad quality, like a weird smell, you’re not going to say, ‘Yes I’ll date you,’” sophomore nursing major Mary Solomon said.
The survey was not conducted for scientific analysis but rather as an interesting stunt by WhatsYourPrice.com, which is an auction-dating site. Their system allows “generous” members to bid actual money for first dates with “attractive” members.

“Essentially, women get paid to go on first dates, for men who are not as outgoing but just as serious about dating,” Velasquez said. “Predominantly it is the males who offer the money, but sometimes women offer as well.”

Northeastern students had some rather negative thoughts about this type of site.
“It’s like prostitution,” Solomon said. “It’s definitely not going to help with confidence.”
Other students felt it would ruin any chance at a successful relationship.
“There’s not much of a connection, the women probably feel forced,” sophomore criminal justice major Kevin Smith said. “Most people already have a hard time on first dates.”

But some students thought they system could be beneficial.

Middler behavioral neuroscience major Jeffrey Baran, said, “I think it’s a good idea. Pretty reasonable.”
Now that the Perfect Man has been defined, he needs a Perfect Woman.

The website also conducted a survey to find the “Perfect Woman.” Since on WhatsYourPrice.com it is the men that are the ones usually paying, their ranking was not weighted for importance but rather included a monetary value of what the man is willing to pay for a first date with a woman with that quality.

Basically, the survey determined how much cash a specific trait is worth.

From the 5,000 male Boston members surveyed, the results determined that the three most important qualities in a woman are hair color, eye color and education, in that order.

The average man is willing to pay $144.38 for a first date with a redhead, $42.17 for a woman with green eyes and $27.79 for a woman with a master’s degree. The vices of drinking and smoking were also included, with a social drinker valued at $20.54 and a non-smoker at $16.26.

“I think blonde would be the number one choice, but $145 for a redhead, it’s a good price,” Smith said.
Baran said, “I’d pick brunette. But I wouldn’t pay more than $100 for it.”

Women only wanted men with a bachelor’s degree, while men wanted women with a master’s degree, showing that men seem to value education more than women, to the surprise of several students.

“If she has all the perfect qualities together, men will offer $251.14 for a first date,” Velasquez said. “And he has to pay for the date, too.