Computing the Mysteries of Attraction

NY TIMES -- Mar 29 -- Students Elizabeth and Robert were at Wesleyan in 1965 when they became a part of what might have been the first computer dating service; Operation Match.  It sent questionnaires to college campuses, students rated their own looks, intelligence and interests, described their ideal date using the same measures, then returned the survey, along with a $3 fee.  Responses were transferred to punch cards and fed into an enormous Avco 1790 computer. Six weeks later, it spat out lists of mates for everyone. ...During the first five years of marriage, the divorce rate for a couple of the same religion is 24%, no matter what that religion is. But it jumps to 38% for a Protestant and a Catholic, and 42% for a Jew and a Christian, according to economist Evelyn Lehrer.  Divorce rates are higher for interracial couples and couples with a wife who is 4+ years older than her husband. (When the man is a lot older, on the other hand, divorce is no more likely than when spouses are about the same age.)  Personality profiling atempts to "...narrow it down so you spend less time with people who are totally out of the question," said Pepper Schwartz, PerfectMatch's sociologist.  FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES