Publications

Article

Fake AI People Won't Fix Online Dating

By: Scott Duke Kominers

Computer-generated images may inspire even more distrust and surely won’t lead to the love of a lifetime. View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Dating Services; Internet and the Web; Ethics; AI and Machine Learning

January 2022
Case

Dating Ring

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lindsay N. Hyde

In 2015, the co-founders of Dating Ring, an online dating startup that relied on human matchmakers to arrange dates between its members, were deciding whether to either shut down the service or instead manage Dating Ring as a "lifestyle company," ramping down growth... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Exit or Shutdown; Internet and the Web; Venture Capital; Service Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

2006
Working Paper

Improving Online Dating with Virtual Dates

By: Jeana H. Frost, Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely

August 2020
Teaching Note

Updating Dating

By: Scott Duke Kominers, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alan Lam

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 818-052. View Details

Research Summary

People Are Experience Goods: Improving Online Dating with Virtual Dates

Because internet search mechanisms are designed for finding searchable items, we tend to conceptualize the things we seek online in terms of their objective characteristics. For some pursuits, however, this illuminates a mismatch between processes and goals. In online... View Details

28 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Online Match-Making with Virtual Dates

Literally millions of people have found dates through online match-making services, so who says the Internet is isolating? The problem for many users, however, is that initial matches are often imperfect—even frustrating—because the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Publishing

August 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Paktor: Designing a Dating App

By: Michael Luca, Stephanie Chan and Essie Alamsyah

Paktor is a popular mobile-based online dating app from Singapore, where a user can swipe right or left on a profile to indicate her interest in a potential match. The case is designed to explore issues related to pricing, market design, and launch strategies in the... View Details

Keywords: Mobile and Wireless Technology; Design; Price; Product Launch; Global Strategy

winter 2008
Article

People Are Experience Goods: Improving Online Dating with Virtual Dates

By: Jeana H. Frost, Zoe Chance, Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely

Find at Harvard

January 2016
Background Note

Designing a Dating App

By: Michael Luca

July 2023
Article

So, Who Likes You? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

By: Ravi Bapna, Edward McFowland III, Probal Mojumder, Jui Ramaprasad and Akhmed Umyarov

With one-third of marriages in the United States beginning online, online dating platforms have become important curators of the modern social fabric. Prior work on online dating has elicited two critical frictions in the heterosexual dating market. Women, governed by... View Details

Keywords: Online Dating; Internet and the Web; Analytics and Data Science; Gender; Emotions; Social and Collaborative Networks

Find at Harvard

Article

Nudging: Progress to Date and Future Directions

By: John Beshears and Harry Kosowsky

Nudges influence behavior by changing the environment in which decisions are made, without restricting the menu of options and without altering financial incentives. This paper assesses past empirical research on nudging and provides recommendations for future work in... View Details

Keywords: Nudge; Choice Architecture; Behavioral Economics; Behavioral Science; Behavior; Change; Situation or Environment; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decision Making

12 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Swiping Right: How Data Helped This Online Dating Site Make More Matches

Their research suggests that transparency on dating sites—as simple as allowing users to see the identity and photos of those who “swiped right” to show their interest—improves engagement for both men and women. Since Match.com launched... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

02 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

Do Online Dating Platforms Help Those Who Need Them Most?

least. (He is documenting his findings in a book, due to come out in 2013.) In a recent seminar at HBS, Piskorksi shared some findings on the online dating industry, where the research opportunities are nearly endless for a scholar of... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology

30 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

Asking Questions Can Get You a Better Job or a Second Date

intelligent as well.” The research, published in the paper It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask: Question-Asking Increases Liking, examined data from online chats and face-to-face speed dating conversations. In addition to Brooks, the coauthors were... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

February 10, 2022
Article

How to Build a Life: The Common Dating Strategy That's Totally Wrong

By: Arthur C. Brooks

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Research Summary

Interviewing and Dating in Two-Sided Matching Markets: Coordination and Communication (joint with M. Schwarz)

We introduce the interview assignment problem, which generalizes the one-to-one matching model of Gale Shapley (1962) by including a stage of costly information acquisition. Agents do not know their preferences over potential partners unless they choose to conduct... View Details

June 23, 2022
Article

How to Build a Life: How to Stop Dating People Who Are Wrong for You

By: Arthur C. Brooks

August 1996
Case

Eagle Tools, Inc.: Audit Tests of Year-End Inventories When Physical Inventory Is Taken at an Interim Date

By: David F. Hawkins

Keywords: Accounting Audits