Homophily in online dating: when do you like someone like yourself?

Psychologists have found that actual and perceived similarity between potential romantic partners in demographics, attitudes, values, and attractiveness correlate positively with attraction and, later, relationship satisfaction. Online dating systems provide a new way for users to identify and communicate with potential partners, but the information they provide differs dramatically from what a person might glean from face-to-face interaction. An analysis of dyadic interactions of approximately 65,000 heterosexual users of an online dating system in the U.S. showed that, despite these differences, users of the system sought people like them much more often than chance would predict, just as in the offline world. The users' preferences were most strongly sameseeking for attributes related to the life course, like marital history and whether one wants children, but they also demonstrated significant homophily in self-reported physical build, physical attractiveness, and smoking hab...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Andrew T. Fiore, Judith S. Donath
• Keywords: CHI 2005, Human Computer Interaction, Keywords Online Personals, Online Dating, Online Dating Systems