Online Dating? Thin and Rich Works Here, Too (New York Times)
Jun 30th, 2024 by Viviane
By HAL R. VARIAN (Reg. req’d)
ONLINE dating is one of the most popular paid services on the Internet. A 2003 report by comScore Networks stated that 40 million Americans had visited an online dating site, and JupiterResearch reported early this year that industry revenue will reach $516 million in 2005.
Recently, three economists – Günter J. Hitsch, Ali Hortaçsu (both from the University of Chicago) and Dan Ariely (from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) – examined the experiences of a sample of users of a major online dating service and subjected it to empirical scrutiny. Their paper, “What Makes You Click,” is available on Mr. Hortaçsu’s Web page.
Users who sign up for a dating service typically post a profile describing their age, income and other characteristics along with an optional photo. The researchers asked University of Chicago undergraduates to rate the users’ physical attractiveness based on the photos, adding another variable to the mix.
The online service provided the researchers with information about which sites a user browsed, whether the user sent e-mail to other users or replied to them and whether the user exchanged phone numbers. What happened after that particular milestone was not recorded.
What Makes You Click: An Empirical Analysis of Online Dating (PDF, 45 pages)
Tags: network, technology, tes
Wow. Love the blog. Makes me feel so tame with my foot fetish. Do you have any posts of female feet?
No Feetman, but I’ll get to work on it!