A new study out of the University of Michigan looked at data from 187,000 people on online dating apps to figure out who they were sending messages to and the researchers found two surprising things.

1.  Online daters are almost always going after people who are 25% “more desirable” than they are.

2.  And they kind of know it! The more you think someone’s out of your league, the longer the message you write to them to try to win them over.

Here’s the most surprising thing of all:  That strategy could actually work if you stick with it.

The researchers say you’ll get rejected or ignored a lot when you only go after people who are that much more desirable than you, but eventually you’ll probably find at least a little success.

“We can tell you what your probabilities are of getting a response, and perhaps they are hovering around 10% when you’re messaging aspirationally.  But that’s not zero.”