| 4/25/2008 1:18:47 AM | I came across this today while preparing for my radio show. | |
nevyn
Prattville, AL
age: 64
| http://onlinepersonalswatch.typepad.com/
news/2007/02/the_truth_about.html
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN -- Jan 30 -- Research conducted by Jeana Frost (Boston Uni / MIT) suggests ~20% of online daters admit to deception. If you ask them how many other people are lying, however--an interviewing tactic that probably gets closer to the truth--that number jumps to 90%. Psychologist Jeffrey Hanc*ck (Cornell Uni) and communications professor Nicole Ellison (Michigan State Uni) bring people into a lab, where they measure height and weight and then check the numbers against those in their online profiles. Online profiles shave off about five pounds and add perhaps an inch in height. Economists Guenter Hitsch and Ali Hortaçsu (University of Chicago) and psychologist Dan Ariely (MIT) compared heights and weights of online daters with national census data. Online height is exaggerated by an inch or so for both men and women. Women appear to understate their weight more as they get older: by five pounds in their 20s, 17 pounds in their 30s and 19 pounds in their 40s. Men's profiles without photos draw one fourth the response of those with photos, and women's profiles without photos draw one sixth the response.
Why so much inaccuracy? Sara Kiesler (Carnegie Mellon), suggest that "computer-mediated communication" is disinhibiting, causing people to say just about anything they feel like saying. There are no physical cues, raised eyebrows or grimaces to keep people's behavior in check so online daters tend to construct what Ellison and colleagues Jennifer Gibbs (Rutgers) and Rebecca Heino (Georgetown), call an "ideal self" rather than a real one.
For a psychometric evaluation to be taken seriously by scientists, the test needs to be shown to be reliable (you can count on it to produce stable results), and it needs to be shown to be a valid measure of what it is supposed to be measuring. i.e. that romantic pairings are actually successful. None have. Jupiter Research reports (phone survey of 2,000) "barely one quarter of users reported being very satisfied or satisfied with online personals sites." Many paying members get frustrated by a lack of response to their e-mails; the vast majority of people in the profiles simply cannot respond. Engage allows members to bring friends and family with them online to check people out and match them up. This is the next phase and the "community" approach to online matching. "Virtual dating" is being developed. Frost, Ariely (MIT) and Michael I. Norton (Harvard) report that people who had a chance to interact with each other (by computer only) on a virtual tour of a museum subsequently had more successful face-to-face meetings than people who had viewed only profiles.
Any comments on this article?
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| 4/25/2008 1:50:50 AM | I came across this today while preparing for my radio show. | |
vitruviangal
Madison, WI
age: 47
| Yenta for hire.............. 
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| 4/25/2008 5:04:02 AM | I came across this today while preparing for my radio show. | |
nevyn
Prattville, AL
age: 64
| http://foner.www.media.mit.edu/people/foner/yenta-brief.html
A brief introduction to Yenta
I have implemented, and am continuing to improve, a system called Yenta. It provides privacy-protected, distributed, automatic generation of clusters of users who are interested in similar topics. This is a sort of coalition-building or matchmaking system. These clusters then serve as the basis for introducting users to each other. Users can send messages to particular other users, or to everyone in the cluster. In addition to its obvious role in introducing people who have never met, Yenta can serve in another role: finding people in the same organization, perhaps only a few offices away from each other, who should have known that they are working on similar projects or with similar tools, but didn't, because it never occurred to either party to mention it to the other.
Every user runs their own copy of Yenta, and the various Yentas communicate with each other, arranging introductions and passing messages. Personal information is tightly protected, without requiring large amounts of trust either in the network or in any Yenta not under your own control. The eventual goal is the ubiquitous distribution of Yenta across the Internet.
Also: Yenta (YEN-tah) is a Yiddish word referring to a busybody or gossipmonger. Most definitions refer to it as a gossipy woman; a blabbermouth,
I just had to know...and I really wish I was 15 years younger and lived in Madison Wi..and I would be chasing after late blooming flowers.
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| 4/25/2008 8:07:18 AM | I came across this today while preparing for my radio show. | |
vitruviangal
Madison, WI
age: 47
| well that was quite a burst of information, you have a busy brain........comes with the Radio territory
Busy Body.......Blabbermouth........I suppose the only way to get everybody lined up with everybody else, networking, matchmaking is to make yourself good at being in everybodies business......
Yeah......I think I prefer the idea of being a networker yenta than a blabbermouth....
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| 4/25/2008 9:46:45 AM | I came across this today while preparing for my radio show. | |
honestinlov4u
Abington, PA
age: 59
| nevyn, that is a bunch of cool information. I like the fact that personal info is carefully guarded and that it is so much better at identifying potential, as the virtual mueseum tour. I guess when you think about it it makes a lot of sense. I knew the yiddish word, dut did not know all the other facts and percentages.
Like you I wish I were 15 years younger and out there.
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| 4/25/2008 10:49:54 AM | I came across this today while preparing for my radio show. | |
nevyn
Prattville, AL
age: 64
| There is a funny story connected with the age wish thing.
An old couple in their 60s were having an argument in front of a wishing well. The old man blurts out that he wished he were married to a woman 30 years younger then him. There was a great flash of light and he immediately turned 90 years old.
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| 4/25/2008 6:44:19 PM | I came across this today while preparing for my radio show. | |
honestinlov4u
Abington, PA
age: 59
| ROFLMBO...GREAT - that would be my luck!!!
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