5 dating red flags to avoid signalling

Have you found yourself on a date that you felt was going pretty well, only to reach the end of the evening with the distinct sense that you might have said the wrong thing? If you’ve already checked your teeth for spinach, and you’ve kept your personal hygiene in check — then you might be wondering where it could have all gone so wrong.

As ever, your friends at GJ are on hand to give you some helpful tips and cast some light on the innocent mistakes you might be making without even realising.

You know the game: a casual conversation about their English Mastiff somehow manages to mention just about every enviable asset, achievement or acrument they have ever attained.

Using your pet pooch as a not-so-cunning device to stealth boast is dastardly dating behaviour. Still, it’s marginally better than the lesser-known “humble-brag” (see Cheryl Cole and her tweet: “How can I still be nervous about red carpets after 10 years. Eeek!”)

Something is going down here, and eyebrows will be raised when your screen flashes to highlight a less than perfect score. It is not dissimilar to watching a date be rude to waiting-on staff: i.e. a sign that, when their guard is down, they are rude, tardy, or liable to soiling upholstery. None of which make for lasting relationship material.

Now, don’t be embarrassed. Quite literally everybody has been there: the insomniac scrolls through a Facebook photo gallery which goes back a few years too many — or the story you’re being told but already know the ending to because you’ve stalked their Twitter threads.

The moment it ventures into less acceptable territory is when you let slip just how thoroughly you’ve conducted your research. After all, no woman likes the thought of a date who’s already trawled through photos of her in a bikini.

Unless he has pulled out his phone directly after asking what your preferred takeaway meal might be, there’s nothing less sexy than a man who stares at a screen and seems like he would rather be somewhere else. Plus, the science says that even when your phone is simply sitting on the table, it may disrupt relationship development.

So, keep it stowed away and try some good old-fashioned eye contact.

Nobody wants to date a guy who can’t commit to even the most crucial of decisions.

Struggling to know what to say to your date? Here are 5 compliments she’ll actually want to hear…

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