Online Dating Sites: Are Matching Claims Real or Science Fiction?

 Posted on August 19, 2014 in Divorce

A divorce brings on many new life changes. One of the biggest, and perhaps one of the most overwhelming, is dating. There has been a surge of popularity in online dating sites over the past several years. Many of these sites “guarantee” you will find love. But will you?

A recent 64 page report, written by scientists who were commissioned by the Psychological Science in the Public Interest, challenges the assertions of mathematical algorithms scientifically proven to predict successful relationships as used by online dating websites.

In fact, one author of the report compares online dating predictions to making predictions on the stock market—economists may know a great deal about the market and companies, but predicting which stocks will increase in value is still an unguaranteed risk, just like going out on a date. There is no way to predict if the date will lead to a successful relationship.

The study does tout online dating sites for providing three important things to potential daters:

• Access to potential partners;

• Communication with potential partners; and

• Matching with potential partners.

However, the study also found three major problems with the assertions from online sites in regards to their “scientific” methods of matching and guaranteed love:

• Science has yet to figure out what the recipe for true love actually is, so chances are mathematical algorithms have not either;

• Giving people thousands of profiles to choose from leads to people focused on superficial traits of potential dates; and

• Beginning a relationship with just online communication does not provide a good foundation in which to build the relationship.

The conclusion of the report stated, “It is unlikely that any matching algorithm that seeks to match two people based on information available before they are aware of each other can account for more than a very small proportion of the variance in long-term romantic outcomes, such as relationship satisfaction and stability.”

If you are separated from your spouse and are ready to move on with your life and file for divorce, contact a compassionate Geneva family law attorney today to discuss your options.