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Romantic regressions : an analysis of behavior in online dating systems
Abstract
Online personal advertisements have shed their stigma as matchmakers for the awkward to claim a prominent role in the social lives of millions of people. Web sites for online dating allow users to post lengthy personal ads, including text and photos; search the database of users for potential romantic partners; and contact other users through a private messaging system. This work begins with psychological and sociological perspectives on online dating and discusses the various types of online dating Web sites. Next, it presents an analysis of user behavior on one site in particular, which has more than 57,000 active users from the United States and Canada. A demographic description of the population is given, and then 250,000 messages exchanged by the active users over an eight-month period are analyzed. An examination of which characteristics are "bounding" finds that life course attributes such as marital status and whether one wants children are most likely to be the same across the two users in a dyadic interaction. To understand which characteristics are important to users in deciding whom to contact, regression models show the relative strength of a variety of attributes in predicting how many messages a user with those attributes will receive. By far the strongest predictor of messages received is the number of messages sent. For men, age, educational level, and self-rated physical attractiveness are the next most important qualities. For women, they are not being overweight, self-rated physical attractiveness, and having a photo. Finally, a discussion of the design implications of these findings and other design issues follow the results.
... Browsing a large catalog requires exclusion of entire categories, snap judgments, and quick dismissal of the vast majority of the items." (Fiore 2004). ...
... The characteristics used to pair people for an arranged marriage -e.g., family background, caste, socioeconomic status -are much easier to represent in a database and search than vaguely defined qualities like "chemistry," which people often cite as a major factor in love relationships." (Fiore 2004). ...
... Konventionelles Offline Dating ist dadurch charakterisiert, dass sich die Kontaktaufnahme zu einer Person meistens in einem strukturierenden situativen Rahmen vollzieht, der die Möglichkeiten, eine Beziehung zu knüpfen, auf vielerlei Weise spezifiziert und restringiert (Fiore 2004 (Fiore 2004) Beim Online Dating fehlt ein solcher situativer Rahmen, so dass einerseits vielerlei Anstrengungen um die Aussegregation eines diadischen Intimbereichs dahinfallen. Weder muss ich mich wegen drohender Trennung mit der Kontaktaufnahme beeilen, noch muss ich für die Abschirmung gegenüber störenden Dritten sorgen. ...
... One might even say that the Internet promises to continue -on a technological level -the liberation in the process of couple formation that started as a social movement in the late 1960s. In fact, this new media suggests that almost all remaining constraints, which are characteristic for classic places of couple formation, could be overcome (Geser/Bühler 2006;Hitsch/Horta/Ariely 2005;Fiore 2004). It offers an enormous amount of choices and makes it easy to contact people from all over the world. ...
... The present analysis considering the 'neoromantic' interactional forms of love on the Internet is only one perspective on the phenomenon of online dating. Major trends in sociological analyses describe it primarily in terms of the rational choice theory and the economics of the marriage market (Schulz/Skopek/Blossfeld 2010;Skopek/Schulz/Blossfeld 2009;Geser/Bühler 2006;Hitsch/Horta/Ariely 2005;Fiore 2004). Following this tradition, the process of mate selection in general and online dating in particular is character-ized as a form of market transaction where people exchange personal resources like education, social status, beauty, and so on, in order to maximize their individual utility. ...
This paper will at first show how romantic love and economic rationality have emerged in modernity as two distinct spheres, which are characterized by their own normative principles, expectations and practical orientations – two spheres that have systematically been opposed in sociological tradition. In a second part, it will be analyzed how these two distinct sets of normative principles and practical orientations are both introduced into the field of online dating. This leads to the third part which investigates on an empirical basis how people deal with the ambivalences and tensions between these different orientations in the practice of online dating. Finally, a short conclusion questions if the boundaries between love and the market are being blurred or, in a fragile way, reestablished on the Internet today.
Zusammenfassung
In diesem Beitrag wird zunächst aufgezeigt, wie romantische Liebe und ökonomische Rationalität in der Moderne als zwei eigenständige Sphären entstanden, die durch je eigene normative Prinzipien, Erwartungen und praktischer Orientierungen gekennzeichnet sind und die zudem in der klassischen soziologischen Theorie zueinander systematisch als Gegensätze angesehen wurden. Im zweiten Teil wird analysiert, wie diese beiden eigenständigen Bereiche normativer Prinzipien und praktischer Orientierungen in das Feld des Online-Dating eingeführt werden. Dies führt dann zum dritten Teil, in dem empirisch untersucht wird, wie die Nutzer mit den Ambivalenzen und Spannungen zwischen diesen unterschiedlichen Orientierungen in der Praxis der Partnerschaftsbörsen umgehen. Die Schlussforderungen schließlich gehen der Frage nach, ob die Grenzen zwischen Liebe und Markt im Begriff sind, verwischt werden oder ob diese – auf jedoch brüchige Weise – im Internet heute wieder hergestellt werden.
... One might even say that the Internet promises to continue – on a technological level – the liberation in the process of couple formation that started as a social movement in the late 1960s. In fact, this new media suggests that almost all remaining constraints, which are characteristic for classic places of couple formation, could be overcome (Geser/Bühler 2006; Hitsch/Horta/Ariely 2005; Fiore 2004). It offers an enormous amount of choices and makes it easy to contact people from all over the world. ...
... The present analysis considering the 'neoromantic' interactional forms of love on the Internet is only one perspective on the phenomenon of online dating. Major trends in sociological analyses describe it primarily in terms of the rational choice theory and the economics of the marriage market (Schulz/Skopek/Blossfeld 2010; Skopek/Schulz/ Geser/Bühler 2006; Hitsch/Horta/Ariely 2005; Fiore 2004 ). Following this tradition , the process of mate selection in general and online dating in particular is character-ized as a form of market transaction where people exchange personal resources like education , social status, beauty, and so on, in order to maximize their individual utility. ...
Untruthfulness and deception are common constituents of social interactions. In everyday life, however, they usually occur in form of small lies and cheating. Gaining a better position in order to receive social approval by others might be the intention underlying untrue statements. In this contribution, we investigate deception in selfpresentation in the context of mate choice on online dating sites. Using data from an online survey conducted amongst users of an online dating site, we analyse whether patterns of misrepresentation in users' profiles can be detected and which of the actors' characteristics influence the observable patterns of untruthfulness. For this purpose, we introduce an analytical distinction between specific and unspecific compensation of disadvantageous chances in mating. The empirical analyses focus on deceptive presentation in the user profile concerning educational level and physical attractiveness. The results show clear gender specific and trait specific patterns of deceptive selfpresentation. With regard to, for example, body height, there is a significant effect for men, but not for women: especially small men have a higher probability to misrepresent their height in the user profile. This strategy will be called specific compensation of disadvantageous chances on the partner market. In addition, the analyses support our expectations concerning strategies of unspecific compensation: actual or perceived disadvantages in one characteristic can lead actors to misrepresent themselves in another characteristic; likewise, disadvantages in one characteristic can be compensated by advantages in other characteristics. Using unspecific compensation, actors are able to keep deception in one characteristic on a minimal and therefore excusable level.
... This approach has the advantage that whoever contacts a scam account is more likely to 7% of the messages that are sent on DATINGSITE ever receive a reply. This result is in line with what was shown by previous research [14]. Looking at scam accounts, we see a clear two-fold distribution: " Escort Services " and " Matchmaking Services " reply even less than regular users. ...
... The popularity of online dating sites has attracted a wealth of research. Fiore et al. performed an analysis of the demographic characteristics of online dating users, as well as of the characteristics of the messages that those users exchange [14]. Chen et al. presented a work that analyzed the social network of the users on an online dating site [10]. ...
Online dating sites are experiencing a rise in popularity, with one in five relationships in the United States starting on one of these sites. Online dating sites provide a valuable platform not only for single people trying to meet a life partner, but also for cybercriminals, who see in people looking for love easy victims for scams. Such scams span from schemes similar to traditional advertisement of illicit services or goods (i.e., spam) to advanced schemes, in which the victim starts a long-distance relationship with the scammer and is eventually extorted money.
In this paper we perform the first large-scale study of online dating scams. We analyze the scam accounts detected on a popular online dating site over a period of eleven months, and provide a taxonomy of the different types of scammers that are active in the online dating landscape. We show that different types of scammers target a different demographics on the site, and therefore set up accounts with different characteristics. Our results shed light on the threats associated to online dating scams, and can help researchers and practitioners in developing effective countermeasures to fight them.
... This is accomplished through a series of components that are consistent to all online dating sites. These components include a self-description or profile made by users; users viewing descriptions of others; and users making interpersonal connections whether online or potentially in person (Rocco Tresolini Fiore, 2004). ...
... Once a profile is created, users can search for others and sort by a specific type of person. Often, the dating systems will also select potential matches and suggest them to the user through matching algorithms (Rocco Tresolini Fiore, 2004). ...
abstract:
For many busy and transient Black professionals, online dating may seem like a viable social option yet qualitative inquiry in a clinical setting revealed apprehensiveness to meeting potential partners on the internet. Perceived personal barriers included an interest in dating others who were similar (e.g., homogamy) in class, race, and/or religion. An exploration of quantitative research findings supports the broad existence of these perspectives among some Black professionals. Economic considerations, such as the cost of computers and online dating memberships, are also outlined as potential barriers. Additionally, soft research techniques (e.g., internet search results describing a topic subjectively, culturally, or opinion-based) were implored to fill the gap left by the limited hard research on the process of online dating, the challenges associated with its use (e.g., discrimination, digital deception), and the cultural norm differences in face-to-face versus online dating. Research on online dating is growing but minimal attention has been given to the experiences of Blacks who might be increasingly utilizing these social networking tools. The present paper examines these perceptions in the context of the sparse literature on Black online dating. Implications for future research and recommendations for Black online daters are provided.
... We know that perceivers are motivated to form accurate impressions of their interaction partners and this goal is especially salient online (Fiore, 2002). The anonymity of online interactions may incentivize users to form accurate impressions. ...
... Riegelsberger, Counts, Farnham & Phillips (2007) examined attributes gamers use to select partners and identified that gamers found voice information more disambiguating than photos. In dating contexts, men and women weight profile factors differently (Fiore, 2002). Although we know the importance of profile attributes, we do not know why these attributes are important or how they facilitate the impression formation processes. ...
People form consistent impressions of others given surprisingly little information. With the advent of social networks, impressions now may form online rather than in a face-to-face context. This research explores aspects of online impression formation and discusses the crucial role of user profiles in this process. By examining users' decisions in an experimentally controlled social network, we show that users need only a "thin slice" of profile information in order to form impressions of others online. Additionally, specific profile attributes are evaluated for their perceived utility (how much do users choose to view these attributes), predictiveness (how well they serve as a proxy for a full profile), and diagnosticity (their ability to help users choose between online profiles). Findings provide design suggestions for better profile displays when space is restricted.
... The primary focus of this paper is on the friends list and how it influences dating strategies on SNS. Dating in online environments has been reported extensively in past papers [10, 11, 12]. We reference existing literature for SNS history, feature functionality, and concepts that may explain SNS dating behavior such as identity, self-representation and social capital. ...
... Searching by criteria in SNS works the same way for online dating sites. To understand more about searching by criteria, see Fiore [11]. This section describes how the friends list is used to look for dates. ...
This study examines dating strategies in Social Networking Sites (SNS) and the features that help participants achieve their dating goals. Qualitative data suggests the SNS feature, the friends list, plays a prominent role in finding potential dates, verifying credibility, and validating ongoing relationship commitment levels. Observations of how study participants use the friends list may provide design implications for social networking sites interested in facilitating romantic connection among their users. More broadly, this research shows how subtle user-interface design choices in social computing software can have a profound effect on non-trivial activities like finding a life partner.
... This reproduced collection of facts is directly confirmed by [89]. More male agents populated dating services [20] and also many more male agents were likely to receive no likes, matches, or messages than female agents [90]. This was also reproduced by our reported agent-based model. ...
We demonstrate the use of agent-based models to simulate the interactions of two mobile dating applications that possess divergent interaction features. We reproduce several expected outcomes when compared to extant literature. We also demonstrate the use of a standard social network analysis technique—the network regression, Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure—in conducting a principled and interpretable comparison between the two models with strong results. This combined approach is novel and allows complex system modelers who utilize agent-based models to reduce their reliance on idealized network structures (small world, scale-free, erdos-renyi) when applying underlying network interactions to agent-based models that can
often skew results and mislead from a full picture of system-level properties. This work serves as a proof-of-concept in the integration of classical social network analysis methods and contemporary agent-based modeling to compare software designs and to enhance the policy-generation process of online social networks.
... Methods from Rege [12] and Yang [15] shows the importance of finding dating sites validate of online services, where users can be moreless safe. Another approach is to use some statistical methods, for more details see Fiore [6]. Even patented methods can be found in the area of raking in online dating services [8]. ...
... Online dating is gaining popularity all over the world and many reasons such as increased divorce rate, loneliness, and delayed marriage among many are the reasons for the popularity. Many factors affect the online dating, for example, for men, age, educational level, and self-rated physical attractiveness are important qualities and for women, they are not being overweight, self-rated physical attractiveness, and having a photo (Fiore, 2004). Whyte and Torgler (2017) explored factors that influence matches of online dating participants' stated preference for particular characteristics in a potential partner and compares these with the characteristics of the online daters actually contacted. ...
Online behavior varies according to the purpose and situations and many get involved in intimate relations, like in online dating, which have an impact on the person and his mental health. The chapter focused on the impact of online dating, cyber stalking, cybersex, and pornography on mental health. Though many studied the online dating among adolescents and adults, that of old age group is not yet fully explored especially about their sexual needs. It is worth exploring factors related to risky sexual behaviors among gay and bisexual individuals. Online dating for mentally ill people is an under-researched area. Cyberstalking is an important issue, especially among adolescents and young adults, and cybersex and cyber pornography threatens the safety and mental health in addition to the problems of addiction and child trafficking, and it is linked with high sexual risk behaviors and sex crimes. It is necessary to develop tailored psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions by taking into account the complexity and heterogeneity of the problems.
... This article is not the first to use data from an online dating site to study preferences (see, e.g., Feliciano, Lee, and Robnett 2011;Fiore 2004;Hitsch, Hortaçsu, and Ariely 2010;Lewis 2013;Lin and Lundquist 2013;Skopek, Schulz, and Blossfeld 2011;Taylor et al. 2011;Yancey 2009). Research on online dating, in turn, represents but one small corner of a new universe of scholarship using "digital footprints" to better understand human behavior and interaction (see review in Golder and Macy 2014). ...
As social scientists increasingly employ data from online sources, it is important that we acknowledge both the advantages an limitations of this research. The latter have received comparatively little public attention. In this comment, I argue that a recent article by Anderson and colleagues: 1) inadequately describes the study sample; 2) inadequately describes how the website operates; and 3) inadequately develops the paper’s central measures — such that it is difficult to evaluate the generalizability, veracity, and importance of their claims and impossible to replicate their findings. These limitations are not unique to the Anderson et al. article; rather, they point to a set of concerns that all researchers in this growing and important line of study need to address if our work is to have enduring impact.
... Segundo Leão (2010), Ekman em um de seus trabalhos sobre as expressões faciais humanas, demonstra evidências que suportam a universalidade das expressões faciais. Essas "expressões faciais universais" são as que representam felicidade, tristeza, raiva, medo, surpresa e aversão (Ekman 1994). Também foram estudadas as expressões em diversas culturas e tipos faciais (ocidentais, africanos, chineses, japoneses, por exemplo). ...
Resumo. Este capítulo descreve o trabalho que vem sendo realizado no Departamento de Ciência da Computação da Universidade Federal de Sergipe no que tange o uso de Computação Afetiva e Sistemas de Recomendação. A gama de trabalhos aqui apresentados representam o estado da arte e o estado da técnica das pesquisas científicas e tecnológicas orientadas e/ou co-orientadas pela prof. Maria Augusta S. N. Nunes. O capítulo também, abre perspectivas considerando a prospecção tecnológica internacional, incentivando que a produção acadêmica e tecnológica de qualidade consiga de forma efetiva atingir o empresariado produtor de software, especialmente no que tange o e-commerce e e-services, no Brasil.
... Some researchers use data from internet dating sites as a resource to study homophily in mate selection (Fiore & Donath 2005). Others predict success (i.e., relationship satisfaction or longevity) based on characteristics of internet daters, usually finding support for complementary needs theories that men should possess financial resources and women should be physically attractive (Fiore 2004; Hitsch, Hortaçsu, & Ariely 2006). Case studies explore success in relationships that begin online (Baker 2002) while other psychological research has examined personality characteristics that predict online relationship formation (Bonebrake 2002; Peter, Valkenburg, & Schouten 2005) and attitudes toward online romantic relationships (Anderson 2005; Donn & Sherman 2002). ...
Objective. The objective of this article is to identify the sociodemographic correlates of Internet dating net of selective processes that determine who is “at risk.” We also examine the role of computer literacy, social networks, and attitudes toward Internet dating among single Internet users.
Methods. We use multivariate logistic regression to analyze 3,215 respondents from the first nationally representative U.S. survey of Internet dating.
Results. Sociodemographic factors have strong effects on Internet access and single status but weak effects on use of Internet dating services once the sample is conditioned on these factors. For this “at-risk” subpopulation, computer literacy and social networks strongly influence the likelihood of Internet dating.
Conclusions. Internet dating is a common mate selection strategy among the highly selective subpopulation of single Internet users and may continue to grow through social networks. Material and virtual elements of the digital divide have direct and indirect effects on Internet dating.
... Some patterns, such as temporal rhythms [12], function well as markers of average human activity. More social science research into SNS is needed to distinguish the different types of users and cultures within a given network [1, 8, 12]. Such work is invaluable when algorithmically applied to detect humans and the various categories within them. ...
We seek to redefine spam and the role of the spam filter in the context of Social Networking Services (SNS). SNS, such as MySpace and Facebook, are increasing in popularity. They enable and encourage users to communicate with previously unknown network members on an unprecedented scale. The problem we address with our work is that users of these sites risk being overwhelmed with unsolicited communications not just from e-mail spammers, but also from a large pool of well intending, yet subjectively uninteresting people. Those who wish to remain open to meeting new people must spend a large amount of time estimating deception and utility in unknown contacts. Our goal is to assist the user in making these determinations. This requires identifying clear cases of undesirable spam and helping them to assess the more ambiguous ones. Our approach is to present an analysis of the salient features of the sender's profile and network that contains otherwise hard to perceive cues about their likely intentions. As with traditional spam analysis, much of our work focuses on detecting deception: finding profiles that mimic ordinary users but which are actually commercial and usually undesirable entities. We address this within the larger context of making more legible the key cues presented by any unknown contact. We have developed a research prototype that categorizes senders into broader categories than spam/not spam using features unique to SNS. We discuss our initial experiment, and its results and implications.
... For this reason, and in view of the increasing number of users of dating sites, much effort is invested in creating advanced, efficient search engines that can facilitate easy, effective searching for partners. To this end, most of the existing search engines in use on dating sites today were set up by taking into account the conceptions and theories dealing with attraction and compatibility factors between romantic partners (Arvidsson, 2006; Fiore & Donath, 2004). These include, for example, the assumption that age and height are determining factors about the decision to contact a partner. ...
The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influence dating-site users to initiate contact with potential romantic partners. The study was carried out by observing online behaviors and analyzing the profiles and authentic messages of these users (N = 106) over seven months. Contacts made by and with the research participants were analyzed in terms of the relationships between initiators‘ and receivers‘ demographic variables (marital status, age, level of education, income), writing skills, and stated physical appearance. In addition, the relationship between contacting partners and site accessibility was examined. The findings revealed that dating-site users initiated contact primarily with those having a similar marital status or slightly better characteristics (income, education, writing skills). In regard to writing skills, it was found that skilled writers attracted more contacts than did less skilled writers. However, the factor that was found to be most significantly related to initiating contact was the length of time that elapsed from last connection to the site, which implies the perceived accessibility of potential romantic partners. The findings were explained in terms of the Social Exchange Theory: people are attracted to those who grant them rewards.
Online behavior varies according to the purpose and situations and many get involved in intimate relations, like in online dating, which have an impact on the person and his mental health. The chapter focused on the impact of online dating, cyber stalking, cybersex, and pornography on mental health. Though many studied the online dating among adolescents and adults, that of old age group is not yet fully explored especially about their sexual needs. It is worth exploring factors related to risky sexual behaviors among gay and bisexual individuals. Online dating for mentally ill people is an under-researched area. Cyberstalking is an important issue, especially among adolescents and young adults, and cybersex and cyber pornography threatens the safety and mental health in addition to the problems of addiction and child trafficking, and it is linked with high sexual risk behaviors and sex crimes. It is necessary to develop tailored psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions by taking into account the complexity and heterogeneity of the problems.
Buku ini diawali dengan sebuah penjelasan mengenai fondasi filosofis ilmu sosial, ulasan konseptual, dan sebuah kajian sosiologis dalam sebuah studi kasus pada tiap topik yang diangkat. Filsafat memberikan dasar bagi perkembangan ilmu sosiologi, ulasan konseptual memberikan alat teoritis untuk melakukan analisis sosial, dan sebuah penelitian dapat mempertajam cara berpikir dan analisis dalam bentuk yang lebih sistematis. Dengan begitu, diharapkan bahwa para pembaca yang memiliki minat dalam ilmu sosial bisa memahami bagaimana sebuah penelitian sosial dapat dilakukan dan sekaligus dinikmati untuk memperluas pengetahuan kita tentang kehidupan sosial.
This last chapter will combine the lines of argumentation and provide a conclusive sociological understanding of the phenomenon ‘online dating’. Applying a Bourdieusian notion of ‘structure’, we will argue that the social distances between agents of different social classes, otherwise maintained by social, geographic, and institutional segregation in a largely direct way, are consolidated in digital partner markets in a particularly immediate way. In the ‘hyper-focus’ online dating, users – socially classified before even entering the market – classify themselves, their symbolic goods and their potential partners in the course of their practices and interactions. It is under the conditions of numeric abundance of potential partners from all social classes where the scarcity and hierarchy of symbolic goods already operative in the offline world come to light and can unfold their full force. A dating platform is a partner market with a unique efficacy, as it allows symbolic capital to operate very efficiently in its function of converting the users’ capital endowments. In the aggregate, users thereby create a particularly structured market, which reinforces the relations of societal domination also effective outside of the online dating market. In contrast to reductionist theories of individual choice, that conceive of the market’s structure as condition and outcome of individual preferences only, the Bourdieusian conceptualization helps us to understand the role of relational structuring practices. Given the fact that habitus is operative even in the supposedly structure-free sphere of online dating, this work makes a case for a sociological approach that remains sensitive to the aggregated effects of reproduction strategies in a realm closest to the idea of freedom of action.
In the public discourse, online dating is often seen as a unique phenomenon, distinctly different from traditional or ‘normal’ ways of finding one’s partner. Whereas many users worldwide embed online dating into their everyday lives quite naturally, the field of mass media in particular still treats it as a peculiar subject. In the following section, the online dating phenomenon will first be embedded within a historical context. In the context of different long-term societal developments, online dating may be well received as a logical consequence of modernity rather than as an anomaly or singularity. Subsequently, the basic principles of online dating and its societal prevalence will be discussed. In the next step, societal diagnoses of online dating, ranging from euphoric to dysphoric reactions, will be outlined. Finally, research will be reviewed that analyzes processes on online dating platforms, and it will be shown that models of individual (rational) choice play a dominant role in empirical research.
Innerhalb der Sozialwissenschaften hat es eine lange Tradition, die gesellschaftliche Modernisierung als einen Prozess der progressiven Rationalisierung zu beschreiben, der sich sukzessive in immer mehr Bereiche ausdehnt und diese immer tiefer durchdringt. Klassische Beispiele für eine solche Sichtweise finden sich etwa bei Max Weber, in marxistischen Perspektiven oder in dem Habermasschen Konzept einer Lebenswelt, die sukzessive durch das „System“ kolonialisiert wird. Heute sind es vor allem die Debatten um den Neoliberalismus und das damit verknüpfte unternehmerische Subjektmodell, die eine immer weitere Ausbreitung ökonomischer Rationalitätsmuster in der Gesellschaft diagnostizieren (Bröckling et al. 2000).
Die sozialwissenschaftliche Diskussion um die ungleichheitsrelevanten Aspekte des Internets ist generell stark auf die zwei Fragen konzentriert: den Zugang zum Netz einerseits und die sozial ungleich verteilten Kompetenzen zu dessen Nutzung andererseits. So wird etwa der „digital divide“ zwischen Norden und Süden problematisiert, der die armen Länder des Südens aufgrund mangelnder Infrastruktur immer noch weitgehend von der Teilhabe an der digitalen ökonomie und Kultur ausschließt. Oder es wird auf die alters-, schichts- oder geschlechtsspezifisch unterschiedlichen Kompetenzen der Internetnutzung verwiesen, die dann durch entsprechende Bildungsprogramme abgemildert werden sollen (vgl. Zillien 2009).
Technologies are meant to enable us to contact more people, more often, and in this way “network” with others. Applied to dating, this would appear to be a good thing, as people would thereby benefit from having additional choice. However, the flip side of the coin is that because of the increased choice we get a case of too much information, too many choices, too many potential (and potentially unsatisfying) mates. We find in a qualitative study of online daters that filtering through the many options, partners and choices offered by online dating sites is a prime concern in online dating. Our aim in this paper is to characterize these filtering techniques, and also to discuss their potential social impact. We find that filtering begins at the initial screening process as daters try to “catch out” incongruous behaviour before investing too much energy in someone unsuitable. Participants quickly become increasingly technologically literate of the code-based features of the site in their quest for greater filtering efficiency. They also come to rely on the cultivation of their own filtering “instinct”. In the end, however, the prevalence and ongoing practice of filtering creates what can only be termed a shopping culture of dating, which often serves to sap the dating energies of participants.
Bisher gibt es keine umfangreiche Forschungsliteratur zum Zusammenhang von Netzwerken, Kultur und der Partnerwahl im Internet.
Dennoch ist es plausibel anzunehmen, dass die Einbettung der Akteure in soziale Netzwerke und kulturelle Kontexte einen Einfluss
auf das Handeln der Akteure im Onlinedating und die daraus resultierenden Muster der Partnerwahl hat. In diesem Beitrag wird
daher versucht, erste Ansatzpunkte für eine Analyse dieses Zusammenhangs herauszuarbeiten. Der Beitrag befasst sich dazu mit
der Frage, wer mit wem im Onlinedating in Kontakt kommt. Mit Onlinedating ist im Folgenden die Praxis des Auswählens, Kontaktierens
und Beantwortens von Kontaktofferten auf so genannten Singlebörsen gemeint. Singlebörsen sind Internetplattformen, auf denen
partnersuchende Personen Zugriff auf Kontaktanzeigen anderer Akteure haben. Diese können sie nach ihren Wünschen durchsuchen
und mit den Verfasser/-innen über plattforminterne Nachrichtensysteme in Kontakt treten. Das Ziel der Akteure im Onlinedating
ist in den allermeisten Fällen der Aufbau einer Paarbeziehung, die irgendwann in den ‚normalen’, gleichsam ‚nicht-virtuellen’
Alltag überführt werden soll.
This study examines the accuracy of 54 online dating photographs posted by heterosexual daters. We report data on (a1) online daters' self-reported accuracy, (b) independent judges' perceptions of accuracy, and (c) inconsistencies in the profile photograph identified by trained coders. While online daters rated their photos as relatively accurate, independent judges rated approximately 1/3 of the photographs as not accurate. Female photographs were judged as less accurate than male photographs, and were more likely to be older, to be retouched or taken by a professional photographer, and to contain inconsistencies, including changes in hair style and skin quality. The findings are discussed in terms of the tensions experienced by online daters to (a) enhance their physical attractiveness and (b) present a photograph that would not be judged deceptive in subsequent face-to-face meetings. The paper extends the theoretical concept of selective self-presentation to online photographs, and discusses issues of self-deception and social desirability bias.
Psychologists have found that actual and perceived similarity between potential romantic partners in demographics, attitudes, values, and attractiveness correlate positively with attraction and, later, relationship satisfaction. Online dating systems provide a new way for users to identify and communicate with potential partners, but the information they provide differs dramatically from what a person might glean from face-to-face interaction. An analysis of dyadic interactions of approximately 65,000 heterosexual users of an online dating system in the U.S. showed that, despite these differences, users of the system sought people like them much more often than chance would predict, just as in the offline world. The users' preferences were most strongly same-seeking for attributes related to the life course, like marital history and whether one wants children, but they also demonstrated significant homophily in self-reported physical build, physical attractiveness, and smoking habits.
As users navigate online social spaces, they encounter numerous personal profiles, each displaying a unique constellation of attributes. How do users make sense of this information? In our first study, we provide evidence that users spontaneously make personality trait inferences about people from profiles they encounter online, and for certain profiles, preferentially remember this inferred trait content over actual profile content. Study 2 uses several measures of profile coherence to assess how the coherence of user profiles interacts with trait inferences to influence memory for profiles. Findings provide a better understanding of specific profile content that makes profiles memorable and the social-cognitive process utilized when extracting information from profiles.
"Im Mittelpunkt des Beitrags stehen die spezifischen Gelegenheitsstrukturen und Funktionalitäten, die Internetkontaktbörsen ihren Nutzern zur Partnersuche bieten. Aus Sicht der empirischen soziologischen Partnerwahlforschung wird idealtypisch herausgearbeitet, hinsichtlich welcher Aspekte des Partnerwahlprozesses die Akteure bei der Partnersuche im Internet heute mit neuen Herausforderungen und Chancen konfrontiert sind. Anhand zweier Beispiele aus der aktuellen Forschung wird aufgezeigt, inwiefern sich die Prozesse und Mechanismen der Partnerwahl im Internet von den klassischen Handlungskontexten des Alltags unterscheiden." (Autorenreferat) "This paper describes the specific contextual opportunity structures and functionalities which online dating platforms provide their users for searching partners. From the perspective of empirical sociological mate selection research it is shown how far actors searching for intimate relationships on the web are confronted with new challenges and chances nowadays. Two examples from current research illustrate how the processes and mechanisms of online mate selection actually differ from traditional opportunity structures of everyday life." (author's abstract)
Datasets of online communication often take the form of contact sequences -- ordered lists contacts (where a contact is defined as a triple of a sender, a recipient and a time). We propose measures of attractiveness and activity for such data sets and analyze these quantities for anonymized contact sequences from an Internet dating community. For this data set the attractiveness and activity measures show broad power-law like distributions. Our attractiveness and activity measures are more strongly correlated in the real-world data than in our reference model. Effects that indirectly can make active users more attractive are discussed.
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