![\"okcupid\"](\"https:\/\/www.friendsmatchme.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/okcupid-285x300.png\")
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Christian Rudder, one of dating website OkCupid’s founders, released a blog post Monday entitled: “<\/span>We Experiment On Human Beings!<\/a>” \u00a0You can get the gist of the article from the title. \u00a0The exclamation point sets the tone, representing\u00a0Rudder’s enthusiasm\u00a0towards\u00a0OkCupid toying with their members’\u00a0love lives, as if it is no big deal, in\u00a0Rudder’s words:<\/p>\n We noticed recently that people didn\u2019t like it when Facebook \u201cexperimented\u201d with their news feed. Even the FTC is\u00a0<\/span>getting involved<\/a>. But guess what, everybody: if you use the Internet, you\u2019re the subject of hundreds of experiments at any given time, on every site. That\u2019s how websites work.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Rudder goes on to describe some of the “experiments” they have been playing on\u00a0their members, some more benign than others. \u00a0The first two he describes involves testing the importance of profile text vs profile photos, looks vs personality, through a change in website formatting\/features. \u00a0The third OkCupid experiment Rudder describes is\u00a0on a whole different scale, uprooting any trust a member may hold for\u00a0OkCupid’s match alogrithms and for OkCupid, the dating social networking website itself. \u00a0In the process, Rudder also manages to insult Jay-Z,\u00a0Dr. Oz, and even the OkCupid match algorithms:<\/p>\n By all our internal measures, the \u201cmatch percentage\u201d we calculate for users is very good at predicting relationships…maybe it works just because we tell people it does. Maybe people just like each other because they think they\u2019re supposed to? Like how Jay-Z still sells albums?<\/p>\n To test this, we took pairs of bad matches (actual 30% match) and told them they were exceptionally good for each other (displaying a 90% match.)\u2020 Not surprisingly, the users sent more first messages when we said they were compatible. After all, that\u2019s what the site teaches you to do.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The experiment didn’t stop there. \u00a0OkCupid also possibly ruined good matches, if one was to trust their match algorithms:<\/p>\n …we tested things the other way, too: we told people who were actually\u00a0good<\/em>\u00a0for each other, that they were bad, and watched what happened.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The conclusion in reviewing the resulting actions of the test subjects, i.e. members: perhaps OkCupid’s match algorithms aren’t so special and great:<\/p>\n And if you have to choose only one or the other, the mere myth of compatibility works just as well as the truth<\/strong>. Thus the career of someone like Doctor Oz, in a nutshell. And, of course, to some degree, mine.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Ouch. \u00a0Rudder’s blog post includes the sidenote that “Once the experiment was concluded, the users were notified of the correct match percentage”. \u00a0Going for a second impression now, or second look at the dismissed profile? \u00a0Perhaps that is OkCupid’s next experiment on its members.<\/p>\n What do think of Rudder’s blog post and OkCupid’s experiments on its members? \u00a0Fair play \/ Unfair play? \u00a0Post your comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Christian Rudder, one of dating website OkCupid’s founders, released a blog post Monday entitled: “We Experiment On Human Beings!” \u00a0You can get the gist of the article from the title. \u00a0The exclamation point sets the tone, representing\u00a0Rudder’s enthusiasm\u00a0towards\u00a0OkCupid toying with … Continue reading \n
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