Big Data and Love? Really??

It’s summer and I needed some lighter reading whilst on vacation. The challenge was how to combine “big data” with something, you know, a little more fun?

A reference to OkCupid’s online blog caught my eye on Twitter – possibly old news for you, but the blog provided a highly entertaining lunch hour for me. Stats such as shorter women and taller men received more attention, and curvy women had a higher sex drive than slender women were backed with both data and approach. The statistic about poor grammar resulting in a lower-than-average response rate may be used as a potential motivator for my homework-avoiding teens.

Who knew that highly trained scientific minds were being applied to the idiosyncrasies of mate selection? The application of big data and analytics means big bucks for those in the business of love.

I’m not the first to muse on the topic. “Can Big Data + Big Dating = True Love?” by Matt Young describes how 40 million singles in the USA and another 140 million in China are using an online or mobile dating service – talk about a business driver! From an academic perspective, the Smithsonian describes a whole new level of customer engagement in a blog post “How big data has changed dating.” In this article, Dan Slater, who wrote “Love in the Time of Algorithms: What Technology Does to Meeting and Mating,” describes how a preference could be inferred by analyzing someone’s online behavior. For example, pausing longer on photos of men with facial hair would influence future selections.

Could one game these algorithms? Of course! Amy Webb attributes her success in online dating and the inevitable meeting of her husband to her mathematical savvy. Yep, she even wrote her about methodical approach to online dating in “Data: A Love Story.”

Of course, if love doesn’t sell, then sex certainly does. “Mining the ‘big data’ of sex” culls a few conversational tidbits from “Dollars and Sex” by economist Marina Adshade. Who knew that…

Reducing the price of an American community college education by $1,000 decreases the number of sexual partners the average high-school senior has by 26%?

A seriously unattractive man would need to earn $186,000 more than a truly attractive one for women to prefer him online?

However, an unattractive woman (as judged by other users), could never earn enough money for men to prefer her over a good-looking one! “Either men care so much about appearance, or so little about income,” Adshade writes, “that it is impossible to financially compensate them sufficiently to make that choice.”

Relying on math and machines for matchmaking is convenient but, so far, few stats to support if these matches achieve long-term compatibility.

Regardless, the research certainly provided a great diversion this summer!

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