The Economics of Online Dating
From the people who brought you freakonomics and fission, the University of Chicago brings us an analysis of online dating.
This is not a perfect study for several reasons, not the least of which is that some of it is based on the preferences and successes of undergraduates at the UofC who are, well, a little odd as a whole. For example, in order to evaluate the relative attractiveness of the users (from their photos) as compared to how users rated themselves, they showed the photos to the undergrads. Just keep that in mind.
But there are still some jems from the study.
1) The actual demographics of the users are
a) a good match to the way in which users describe themseves and
b) surprisingly a good reflection of the population (the dating sites examined were geography-specific)
Not surprisingly, the incomes and educations were not a random sampling from the population at large.
2) 14% of men are looking for casual/short-term vs. only 4% of women.
3) 9% of women describe themselves as homosexual as compared to 5% of men. This was a real shock to me. Estimates are that 5-10% of the population is gay (in any population at anytime), but in the US census there are nearly 2X as many declared gay males as females and the declared prevelance of both is well bellow 5%. Online dating appears to sample the population in an interesting way.
4) As in life, users tend to email other users of similar attractiveness, and the most attractive memebers were the most discriminating, though this effect was less than in real life reflecting the lower-risk environment of the internet. Attractiveness is also the single most powerful explaner of the variability in success rates.
6) Red-heads do not do as well as everyone else.
7) The estimated body-mass-index (BMI) of the most attractive users (as rated by the UofC kids and self reporting) falls comfortably within the range of "overweight." I can't figure out if this is a reflection of the user population or the fact that America, as a whole, is fat.
8) And in a finding that will make sociobiologist the world over very happy: While, both men and women were initially attracted by the looks of a potential mate, women paid much more attention to income and education level than men did.
This is not a perfect study for several reasons, not the least of which is that some of it is based on the preferences and successes of undergraduates at the UofC who are, well, a little odd as a whole. For example, in order to evaluate the relative attractiveness of the users (from their photos) as compared to how users rated themselves, they showed the photos to the undergrads. Just keep that in mind.
But there are still some jems from the study.
1) The actual demographics of the users are
a) a good match to the way in which users describe themseves and
b) surprisingly a good reflection of the population (the dating sites examined were geography-specific)
Not surprisingly, the incomes and educations were not a random sampling from the population at large.
2) 14% of men are looking for casual/short-term vs. only 4% of women.
3) 9% of women describe themselves as homosexual as compared to 5% of men. This was a real shock to me. Estimates are that 5-10% of the population is gay (in any population at anytime), but in the US census there are nearly 2X as many declared gay males as females and the declared prevelance of both is well bellow 5%. Online dating appears to sample the population in an interesting way.
4) As in life, users tend to email other users of similar attractiveness, and the most attractive memebers were the most discriminating, though this effect was less than in real life reflecting the lower-risk environment of the internet. Attractiveness is also the single most powerful explaner of the variability in success rates.
6) Red-heads do not do as well as everyone else.
7) The estimated body-mass-index (BMI) of the most attractive users (as rated by the UofC kids and self reporting) falls comfortably within the range of "overweight." I can't figure out if this is a reflection of the user population or the fact that America, as a whole, is fat.
8) And in a finding that will make sociobiologist the world over very happy: While, both men and women were initially attracted by the looks of a potential mate, women paid much more attention to income and education level than men did.
posted by Garfield at 10:24 AM
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