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OKCupid is an online dating site, the best free one, in my opinion. While I did not program it and don't know the core mechanics, I think I have a basic understanding of some of them.
- On OkCupid, you’re more than just a photo. You have stories to tell, and passions to share, and things to talk about that are more interesting than the weather. Get noticed for who you are, not what you look like. Because you deserve what dating deserves: better. By clicking Join, you agree to our Terms.
- But what it does is continue pushing OkCupid down the road of being a different kind of dating site. Seeing visitors promoted a more reflective approach to online dating: you encounter someone's profile, read it, maybe review some of their questions, and then send a message. That 'encounter' phase could happen through Search, but for a lot of.
It’s been an interesting month for online social science experiments, between Facebook’s research into emotional contagion and now OkCupid’s study of perceived compatibility. The two experiments had very different objectives, but both companies learned the same lesson: People get really upset about studies like this.
Problem is, that’s the wrong lesson.
According to a multitude of critics, the companies stepped over an ethical line by playing with emotions without asking users’ permission. The Facebook study showed that users who see more negative content are more likely to produce negative posts of their own. And OkCupid found that telling people — falsely — that they’re compatible is a good way to get them to converse more online.
Why was there such an outcry? True, both companies were manipulating users’ emotions, but people don’t seem to mind the daily emotional manipulation that companies engage in every day through marketing and product design. It’s hard to imagine a world in which companies didn’t try to influence our emotions.
What bothers people is the experimentation. To many people, experiments conjure images of twisted scientists. Businesses even shy away from the word “experiment.” In a recent conversation with a group of managers, I was told, “We don’t run experiments; we run A/B tests” — so named because customers are tested on their preferences for option A or B. The word “experiment” apparently needed a euphemism.
People fear that corporations have free rein to test whatever mad idea strikes them. Let’s make vegans fall in love with steak lovers! Let’s tell people they’ve been unfriended by their mothers! Where does it end? Will Facebook and OkCupid be in the next season of Orphan Black?
While Facebook and OkCupid won’t be creating clones anytime soon, there is a legitimate concern here. In academia, research involving human subjects is severely limited and carefully monitored. Each institution, in the U.S. at least, has an Institutional Review Board for just that purpose. Social science experiments typically must adhere to the following protocol: In lab settings, where subjects are recruited and brought into a room, research participants are informed that they’re taking part in an experiment (though in some fields, such as psychology, they’re routinely deceived about the experiment’s purpose).
Outside the lab, in what we call field experiments, it’s fairly common practice for research subjects not to be informed that they’re in an experiment. For example, my colleagues and I recently hired hundreds of employees of the online work platform oDesk and experimentally varied how much pay we offered in order to better understand the impact of wages on effort. We were able to show the IRB that the research presented no more than minimal risk to the subjects, that it wouldn’t infringe their rights or harm their welfare, and that we weren’t deceiving participants about the work involved. We also showed that if the participants knew it was an experiment, we wouldn’t be able to interpret the results. Hence, the IRB waived the informed-consent requirement.
Facebook’s experiment probably would have been approved by most IRBs, because the possible harm was minor and — importantly — because it wasn’t deceptive (all the posts shown to users were real). OkCupid’s is another story. Because the experiment involved telling users that their compatibility scores were high when they actually weren’t, it probably wouldn’t have gotten through many schools’ IRBs unless participants were asked for their consent.
Despite the element of deception, OkCupid cofounder Christian Rudder was refreshingly open and unapologetic about the dating site’s experiment. He described the company’s past experiments and practically dared users to take offense: “Guess what, everybody,” he wrote. “If you use the internet, you’re the subject of hundreds of experiments at any given time, on every site. That’s how websites work.”
He’s right, of course: Every website experiments on its users in one way or another.
Regardless of IRB considerations, companies should certainly adhere to the core principles of ethical research. But the real problem in corporate America isn’t too many experiments — it’s too few. Although the value of experimentation is self-evident, companies aren’t doing enough well-designed experiments. Not only are companies unwilling to conduct experiments that are aimed at increasing scientific knowledge, they’re reluctant even to pursue the narrower goal of understanding how customers react to their products.
The reason for the dearth of experimentation in corporations is the excruciating number of internal obstacles, many of which are based on knee-jerk reactions rather than careful deliberation. In most companies, you have to get approval from various operational functions, as well as legal and public relations teams, especially if the results are going to be made public. Often there’s a good deal of pushback: Will the public misinterpret the results? Will competitors learn too much about our secret sauce? Don’t we already know this without doing an experiment? Is this going to get in the way of my lunch plans? In addition to these kinds of barriers, there’s a pure know-how issue that makes real research difficult to pull off in corporate settings: Most people never learn how to run experiments.
Even when companies do run experiments, they often balk at allowing the results to be published. So the studies don’t go through the valuable peer-review process, and the findings don’t see the light of day. That’s a loss for other companies, for research as a whole, and even for the company that ran the experiment.
The biggest risk from the Facebook and inevitable OkCupid blowback is that companies will conclude that experiments are too risky and will be even more reluctant to act on opportunities to learn about human behavior or understand products’ effects on society.
It’s hard to overstate how much companies can learn from even the simplest experiments. Which advertisements work? Will customers look elsewhere if we raise prices? How do users interact with and rely on social media? Questions like these are often critical for a company’s bottom line. And the smart use of data and experiments to answer them allows companies to look less like Don Draper and more like Nate Silver — which (fashion aside) is a change for the better. Within the bounds of ethical principles, companies should embrace the experimental method and feed more of their hunches into transparent, published experiments with generalizable insights.
While coming out can be painful for some, it also brings many queer people joy, relief, and understanding. Both platonic and romantic relationships between queer people can be strengthened by talking about your coming out journeys. And if you're queer and looking for love online, take note: New OkCupid LGBTQ dating questions are going live this October to help bring a distinctly queer vulnerability to online dating, and spark connections that are deeper than your average, post-match convos.
Since 1994, queer people in the United States have celebrated LGBT History Month every October. Advocates picked October because National Coming Out Day, recognized on Oct. 11, had been on the map since 1988. This year, in honor of LGBT History Month, OkCupid is launching new profile questions throughout October made specifically for its LGBTQ users. Among others, questions include:
- 'When did you come out?'
- 'Did your family support you coming out?'
- 'Does your family understand your gender and sexual identity?'
- 'Would you date someone who is the same sexual position as you?' That's to say, for the uninitiated: a top, a bottom, or a verse.
- 'Do you consider it cheating to hook up with the opposite sex?'
- 'Would you be open to dating someone who does drag?'
- 'Would you commit long-term to someone of the same sex?'
Profileprompts tend to be helpful in scratching past the surface of cute faces and quippy bioson dating apps. But answering these questions about distinctly queer experiences canhelp nudge you and your match past the typical, tired small talk.
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The OkCupid team decidedto add more queer-specific questions for a number of reasons, but mainly because, according to their own research, the team found that 15% of new users over the past year identified as LGBTQ.Recognizing their rapidly growingqueer community, the team wanted to give users 'the chance to dig deeper,' Michael Kaye, OkCupid's Global Communications Manager, tells Elite Daily.
'These questions came from LGBTQIA+ members of our own team, as well as by asking members of the community what is important to them,' Kaye explains. 'We recognized that there are many questions LGBTQIA+ users want to ask each other, that don't apply to straight people.'
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Compared to other dating apps and services like Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble, OkCupid is one of the most LGBTQ-inclusive. There are 22 gender options to choose from, including non-binary, genderfluid, and two spirit. You can also choose from 13 different sexual orientation options, including asexual, demisexual, and questioning. There's also a specific slot for your pronouns in your OkCupid bio. And while these extra LGBTQ dating questions are launching throughout October for LGBT History Month, they will remain a permanent feature on the app moving forward.
So, next time you're perusing potential matches on OkCupid and looking for something to say, you just might end up making a surprisingly meaningful and intimate connection — filled with vulnerability and compassion because of the experiences you hold closest to your heart. That's pretty worth matching for, if you ask me.