OPW – Feb 24 – Asst. Professor Michael Norton from the
Harvard Business School will be speaking at the Los Angeles Internet Dating Conference
in June. He holds a
B.A. in Psychology and English from Williams College, and a Ph.D in
Psychology from Princeton. Some of Norton's featured work
include The Counterfeit Self and The IKEA Effect. His work has been
published in a number of leading academic journals, including
Science, The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
Psychological Science, and the Annual Review of Psychology. Norton's
work has also been covered in several media outlets such as the New
York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.
Norton's presentation will provide insight on the advantages of
virtual dating in the world of online dating, which is currently
plagued by the "less is more" effect, leading people to
believe that learning more about others leads to greater 'liking.'
Norton shows that acquiring more information about others actually
leads, on average, to less liking. An introductory test on
virtual dates shows that virtual dates cause expectations for
potential dates to be better calibrated, and thus leads to greater
liking after those dates have occurred.
Norton will also be speaking
at the Social Networking Conference also. His topic will discuss the well
being of social capitalists. You can check out photos and videos from
prior conferences by clicking the link here
and scrolling down to Photos from Previous events. See you there!
“Norton shows that acquiring more information about others actually leads, on average, to less liking.” Besides being good news for Omnidate, IMVU and Weopia, this is an interesting assumption. Perhaps Zoosk will go in this direction as well.
Some people want to know a lot about a person before they meet and others don’t. What I want to know is how is a long-ish profile chock-full of personal details less effective (less liking) than virtual dating.
In one case, a person is reading a paragraph of text and some set of attributes like smokes, drinks, likes kids. In another, they are chatting in a virtual environment and in control of asking and answering questions. Emotive bandwidth comes into play here, and in the case of virtual dating, there is much more of this, as opposed to static dating profiles.
Isn’t there more personal information shared between people on a virtual date than what is learned through a dating profile? Or is it how the information is shared, like pacing?
Finally, what are the advantages of virtual dating as opposed to a phone call? I never get a straight answer to this question.
“Norton shows that acquiring more information about others actually leads, on average, to less liking.” Besides being good news for Omnidate, IMVU and Weopia, this is an interesting assumption. Perhaps Zoosk will go in this direction as well.
Some people want to know a lot about a person before they meet and others don’t. What I want to know is how is a long-ish profile chock-full of personal details less effective (less liking) than virtual dating.
In one case, a person is reading a paragraph of text and some set of attributes like smokes, drinks, likes kids. In another, they are chatting in a virtual environment and in control of asking and answering questions. Emotive bandwidth comes into play here, and in the case of virtual dating, there is much more of this, as opposed to static dating profiles.
Isn’t there more personal information shared between people on a virtual date than what is learned through a dating profile? Or is it how the information is shared, like pacing?
Finally, what are the advantages of virtual dating as opposed to a phone call? I never get a straight answer to this question.
Hi Dave,
Here are a couple of studies conducted by Prof Michael Norton and his colleagues that address most of your questions above
1. “Less Is More” http://www.predictablyirrational.com/pdfs/less.pdf. A great read!
2. “Improving Online Dating With Virtual Dates” http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/frost%20chance%20norton%20ariely.pdf.
According to research, what makes virtual dating different than a long-ish profile is that it allows singles to discover the person behind the profile through personal interaction.
See you in LA,
Igor
OmniDate
Hi Dave,
Here are a couple of studies conducted by Prof Michael Norton and his colleagues that address most of your questions above
1. “Less Is More” http://www.predictablyirrational.com/pdfs/less.pdf. A great read!
2. “Improving Online Dating With Virtual Dates” http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/frost%20chance%20norton%20ariely.pdf.
According to research, what makes virtual dating different than a long-ish profile is that it allows singles to discover the person behind the profile through personal interaction.
See you in LA,
Igor
OmniDate