eHarmony Labs Offers Free Relationship Check-Up - Online Personals Watch: News on the Online Dating Industry and Business

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Comments

James Houran

Once again....

Before eHarmony's "lab" starts offering new "testing" products, it should fix what it currently offers in its standard questionnaire, because that "test" and its matching rationale and analytics do not even approach meeting professional testing standards. Interested readers and reporters should see:

Houran, J., Lange, R., Rentfrow, P. J., & Bruckner, K. H. (2004). Do online matchmaking tests work? An assessment of preliminary evidence for a publicized ‘predictive model of marital success.’ North American Journal of Psychology, 6, 507-526.

In fact, eHarmony should finally heed the pressure from the academic community, which has repeatedly called for them to publish research in support of its public claims. Chemistry.com should do this as well. I agree with Kathryn Lord that Chemistry has exploited an edge over eHarmony that people have talked about for years now, but to me there is an even more fundamental question: Are the "tests" being advertised as "scientific" by online dating sites even valid to begin with, or are they simply smoke and mirrors?!

Sites like Chemistry and eHarmony that cater to long-term relationships should be very careful in claims, because so far there has been no credible evidence offered to substantitate the validity of the products that form the core of their business and membership.

Thanks,

James Houran, Ph.D.
Online Dating Magazine

We can outsource your Profile Approval process

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof-This is real science. However, just because something is not proven scientifically does not mean it is not true. It simply means it is not proven. Perhaps their claims can be soften to "could" or "might". At the end of the day, I think most people like taking these tests, and it is good marketing in any event.

Pearl Chen

Curious to see what cutting edge research this lab is engaged in, I tried out The Marriage Clock. What a negative cold way to collect survey information on potential customers! I think the results I got don't reflect my or other single women's reality at all. Call me a romantic Pollyanna, but I know that marriage happens based on a lot of other factors other than statistics.

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