Preliminary Research

What I’m learning so far

Methodology

• Conducted 9 in-person interviews
• Age range: 24–40
• General experience with online dating
• What they enjoy about it and pain-points
• Interviewed people with varied experiences (beginners to seasoned vets)

Key Quotes

“Online dating is a great way to meet people.” — S

“Online dating is like Costco for boys, you can get what you want in bulk” — A

“I use online dating but the experience is so sub-par” — N

“As long as I’m not the one getting played, it’s fun.” — B

“The whole process feels like work, I have to schedule time for it in my day” — M

“There’s something special in meeting people in person, and taking the time to do that” — Sy

Experienced Online Daters

• Most agree that Online Dating is convenient & easy
• A great way to meet people
• You learn a lot about yourself
• Expectations are casual which is a good/bad thing
• Can be addicting or skew expectations
• Emotional rollercoaster

Casual Online Daters

• The process feels like a game
• Dishonesty in profiles, takes awhile to filter
• FOMO
• Lots of indecisiveness in the process, hard to commit
• Constantly judging

Beginner Online Daters

• Afraid of being rejected or constantly being judged
• Doesn’t feel natural or like real life
• Dating culture and rituals seem bizarre
• Trial and error on how you represent yourself, “Wait…am I attractive?
• People seem fake

Overall Perceptions

Book Research

On top of interviews, I’ve been speaking with experts in the field as well as reading some famous books about online dating. I’ll share below some general insights I’ve learned so far.

Dataclysm

Dataclysm has been incredible in sort of dissecting human behaviour. It has consistently proven to me that people are very biased when it comes to their decision making. It also

• Wooderson’s Law
• Network theory to measure strength of relationships
• The Paradox of Attraction
• Online dating has a statistical bias against race
• Gap in expectations in people
• Beauty privilege
• Online identities

Labor of Love

This book has been incredible in informing me of the external factors that influence online dating, namely economics (work).

• Mapping the history of Dating and how it was invented
• Linking dating to economics and historical events
• Dating is a lot of “work”, feels like the worst unpaid internship

Expert Advice

Laura Kurtz

• Behavioural Scientist
• PhD in Online Dating
• Research: Looking at gut instincts as a better predictor for matches

Sam Dunne

• Designer and co-founder of Cohere (UK)
• Published his Masters thesis on Online Dating
• Looked at cultural and historical trends that has shaped dating