Is there a formula for calculating compatibility and finding love online? JV Chamary finds out whether meeting your perfect partner is a problem that can be solved with an algorithm
Our busy modern lives make it hard to meet new people, so more and more of us are turning https://besthookupwebsites.org/local-hookup/norfolk/ to technology to find that special someone. Once the last resort for lonely hearts, online dating has become socially acceptable, even widespread – 4.7 million British people visited a dating site during 2008.
But popular as such sites may be, finding your ideal match online can take a lot of time, as traditional dating sites force users to read dozens or even hundreds of profiles. So some sites are helping people narrow the field by using an algorithm – a set of logical instructions for solving a problem – to find love online.
These algorithms take personal information, such as your interests, and push the data through a computer to calculate a couple’s degree of compatibility (or lack of).
Services like GenePartner offer DNA tests to check for genetic compatibility, while OkCupid’s matching algorithm is powered by a user-generated personality test. eHarmony, the second-biggest dating site, carries out scientific studies to improve its algorithms.
PSYCHOLOGY: Matching personalities for long-lasting relationships
Online matchmaking services like eHarmony and Chemistry are designed for those who are serious about dating. Unlike traditional sites, they don’t let people browse a database. Instead, members take a personality test upon signing up with the service, and their answers are entered into a matching algorithm to calculate compatibility with potential partners.
eHarmony has a reported 33 million members worldwide and even has its own lab, where psychologists question and observe couples and use the results to continuously refine the matching algorithm. “We see which parts of the compatibility model are the strongest, and how we can revise the model to make better matches,” says Dr Gian Gonzaga, director of research and development at eHarmony Labs in Santa Monica, California. Continue reading “BIOLOGY: Testing for sexual chemistry through DNA dating”