Online Match-Making with Virtual Dates

HBS WK — Aug 28 — Users of online dating sites often struggle to find love because the sites themselves make it more difficult than it needs to be. Enter 'Virtual Dates,' an online ice-breaker application from Jeana Frost of Boston University, Michael Norton of HBS, and Dan Ariely of MIT. Technology influences the tone and trajectory of relationships. The interface of online dating sites should be improved to help people filter better. "People spent hours and hours and hours a week online to generate one cup of coffee with one person. That's not a very good system," says Norton. What's more, users often found that the person they were meeting for the first time was not what they had expected. Virtual Dates: After two people find what looks like a good match, the couple meets over their computers for a five-minute Virtual Date ice-breaker that allows two people to communicate in real time using colors, words, and images. Couples may pick up more cues about each other than they would through a chat client. Online dating is not in the end so fundamentally different from regular dating, adds Norton. "It's the people who think it will be quite different from their regular experiences who end up being the most disappointed. FULL ARTICLE @ HBSWK

Mark Brooks: I met Professor Ariely in 2004 in Boston. He and his PhD students have performed some significant research with dating sites  to come to these conclusions. Dating sites should also consider introducing online games to help singles interact in different ways.