Why dating site OKCupid performed secret experiments on its users
This article originally appeared online in The Chicago Tribune’s Blue Sky Originals section by Cheryl V. Jackson. Jackson is a freelance writer. Blue Sky reporter Meg Graham contributed to this report.
In a blog post last summer, Rudder discussed several experiments, unbeknownst to users, that included the site intentionally suggesting bad matches to see how people would behave.
The site wanted to make sure its algorithm established the best matches, and that required testing, Rudder said during a “Data, Democracy and the Human Story” program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The Illinois Humanities Council and the S.
Rudder said various patterns go into match-making. They include common interests, mutual recent breakups and the idea that opposites attract.
“We can’t know which of these patterns might be the best unless we test them against one another,” Rudder said. most popular dating sites in Arkansas “We owed it to our users to check out the algorithm program.”
Rudder’s blog post about the experiments prompted media backlash, yet he said no users involved in the intentionally unfavorable matches complained to OKCupid.
Rudder’s blog post also referenced a 2013 OKCupid experiment in which the site removed members’ profile pictures for seven hours to promote a mobile app called Crazy Blind Date. Though the number of new conversations dropped, a higher rate of messages got replies, according to his book, “Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One’s Looking).”
A conversation with Christian Rudder Taylor Glascock, Blue Sky/ Rudder told the audience he’s not a big cheerleader for the internet. “It’s definitely a bummer people spend so much time on their phones and computers. I do it too. I hate it,”
And 24 percent of the pairs, about twice the number expected, exchanged contact information before photos were restored, the book says. Yet many of those conversations screeched to a halt when the photos reappeared. (more…)