In releasing information about three experiments he conducted on them users the popular dating site/social network has moved on OkCupid, shortly after the turmoil caused by a similar Facebook announcement to conduct a large-scale psychological experiment unknowingly by its users, modifying the content of 700.000 newsfeeds.
The announcement is signed by Christian Rudner, one of the founders of OkCupid, and is titled "We Experiment on Human Beings!" ("We Experiments on Humans!").
«Είμαι ο πρώτος που το παραδέχεται: μπορεί να είμαστε δημοφιλείς, να δημιουργούμε πολλές ωραίες σχέσεις…αλλά το OkCupid δεν ξέρει στ’αλήθεια τι ακριβώς κάνει. Ούτε κανένα άλλο site. Άλλωστε, δεν είναι και πολύς καιρός που οι άνθρωποι άρχισαν να τα φτιάχνουν, ή ότι μπορείς να πας να δεις κάποια σχέδια ή κάτι τέτοιο. Οι πιο πολλές ιδέες είναι κακές. Ακόμα και οι καλές ιδέες θα μπορούσαν να είναι καλύτερες. Αυτό το διαπιστώνεις με πειράματα…αντιληφθήκαμε πρόσφατα ότι δεν άρεσε στον κόσμο το ότι το Facebook ‘πειραματίστηκε’ με το news feed...but guess what: if you use the Internet, you are subjected to hundreds of experiments at any time, on every site. This is how sites work."
One of the experiments had to do with the disappearance of profile photos, another with the power of photography in relation to the profile text to see if the personality ratings were affected and the other made recommendations to users about whether they fit or not with other people who abstained from the estimates the company's software had actually made. In particular, as it turned out, if a user is suggested to have a high "compatibility score" with another user (at the time he was actually low), then the first one is more likely to try to approach the other. Those who thought they were "good match" were twice as likely to send at least four messages than those who said compatibility scores were low. "When we say to people that they fit, they look like they match. Even when they do not fit "is noted.
Regarding the photos, the announcement mentions the hiding of the photos during "Love is Blind Day", on January 15, 2013. Although generally noted drop on the number of conversations during that time, it was found that compared to an ordinary Tuesday, within seven hours without photos users responded to first messages 44% more often, conversations were more "deep", contact information (phones, Email), exchanged faster and "in short, OkCupid worked better." However, as pointed out, the "magic" was lost when the photos came back up, as 2.200 people who were in conversations that had been started "blindly" stopped them. "It was like turning on the bright lights in a bar at midnight," it notes. "Basically, people are only as shallow as technology allows them to be."
The third experiment was about the value of photography in evaluating a profile (at the outset OkCupid provided two assessment scales, one for the personality and one for the appearance).
As stated in the announcement, on the basis of the small discrepancy between ratings, "appearance" and "personality" were more or less the same, as ratings ranged at similar levels. "After we got rid of the two scales and put only one, we did an experiment to confirm our feeling-that users simply look at the photo ... your picture is really worth a thousand words, but your words are not worth it ... almost nothing "is noted in this regard.
Source: naftemporiki.gr
