How to Answer the "I'm Convinced That" Prompt on Hinge

Finish it with a bold claim about yourself that the rest of your profile backs up. The stem invites a man to be sure of something, and certainty is attractive only when it is specific, a little cocky and believable. On our coaching calls we have marked down three kinds of answer again and again: the needy one, the cocky one the photos contradict, and the obvious one. Each of them is easy to write and easy to avoid.

On a live profile review a student finished the stem with the idea that the best way to get to know someone is to meet and do something genuinely fun. The coach's verdict was that it reads as available and needy, and it asks for a lot right away. It also sounds like what most men send, which is the quiet reason it fails. When a woman has seen the same line a dozen times, it stops registering.

The needy answer usually hides behind friendliness. It sounds like an invitation, but it is a request for a date written as an opinion. A conviction should be about you or about the world, not about how soon she should meet you.

A different student wrote that they were convinced they were the best dressed of all time. The coach liked the cockiness, and said so. The trouble was congruence. The photos on that profile showed fairly simple clothes, so the claim did not match what a woman could see.

That is the main thing to check with this stem. A big claim is a promise, and the next thing she does is look at your photos to see whether you kept it. If the claim is about style, the photos need style. If it is about being funny, something on the page has to be funny. The coach's note on that profile was that the photos had improved a great deal and the prompts were now the weak part, so keep both ends of the profile level with each other.

In a later review a student wrote that cute women with a positive personality are what they get along with. The coach's reaction was close to a shrug: everyone gets along with that kind of woman, in theory. It was non-polarizing and soft, and the advice was to take more risks. The photos had improved enormously. The prompts had not caught up.

A claim that every man and every woman would agree with is not a conviction. It is a weather report. The test is simple: could the opposite be said by a reasonable person? If it could not, you have written something nobody will remember.

Our coaches say the same three things about every prompt. It should be relevant to dating, it should polarize a little, and it should be specific. This stem is perfect for that, because "I'm convinced that" can carry an opinion, a tease or a claim about how the two of you would be together.

A worked contrast from the same review sessions makes the point. One student's prompt told a woman that dating him was the best thing that would ever happen to her. The coach read that as cocky, but obviously and loudly trying to be cocky. Another answer, on a different prompt, took a boring trait and said it in a cocky and unique way, and the coach loved it. Cocky works when it is earned and a bit unexpected, and fails when it is the loudest thing on the page.

On another call, reviewing a different profile, the coach said that in theory you put the edgy elements first and the softer ones after. If you are using this stem as your first or second prompt, that is where the bold claim belongs. If it is your third, you can afford to be warmer.

In the best-dressed review the coach also marked down the student's goal of quitting a day job to start a business, because plenty of people say that and it does not make a man stand out. It showed ambition, but it was not unique. If you are going to claim something, pick a thing that most men would not say.

Check your answer against four questions. Does it ask her for anything, such as a meeting, a reply or reassurance? If it does, it is needy. Do your photos support it? If they do not, it is cocky without proof. Could any man have written it? If so, it is obvious. And does it have a specific detail that a stranger could picture?

If the answer to the first three is no and to the last is yes, you have a conviction worth putting on a profile.