Do dating sites work

With increasingly busy schedules, focus on our careers, and time spent on the Internet, it seems like we're finding less and less time to find a love match. Although these aren't the only culprits behind our loneliness, the best dating sites have filled a void we can't ignore. And in this digital age, it only makes sense to join a dating app or site if you're single and in the market for a partner. Whether you like them or not, or have signed up or still undecided, you're likely asking yourself: do dating sites actually work? As much as we'd like to think that they give everyone a fair chance at finding love, the truth is that dating sites actually use an attractiveness scale to determine, in part, who appears as a potential match. Some algorithms will rate your attractiveness based on your photos, while others will rate it by user response to your profile.

A new study published in the upcoming issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest is shedding light on the science - or lack thereof - behind online dating services. The psychological scientists who wrote the report hope to indentify how online dating might be hurting singles. Co-written by Eli J. Finkel Northwestern University , Paul W. Reis University of Rochester , and Susan Sprecher Illinois State University , the report reviews over psychology studies and surveys. Scientists worry that dating sites claim to use exclusive "matching algorithms," which may be nothing more than a guessing game. In fact, our report concludes that it is unlikely that their algorithms can work, even in principle, given the limitations of the sorts of matching procedures that these sites use.

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Join us Thursday for two special coronavirus tele-town hall meetings. Find out more. Remember when dating was relatively simple? Technology has changed much of that.