PRWEB -- Apr 7 -- A recent Harvard Business School study showed that virtual dating created favorable impressions of the other person and easier first meetings in the real world. "Virtual dating is a terrific icebreaker and a fun way to get to know each other," explained Igor Kotlyar, co-founder of OmniDate. Those interested in virtual dating can join the free OmniDate site, post a picture and profile, choose an avatar to represent them, peruse the other profiles and invite someone interesting on a "date." When the invitation is accepted, the two can meet in a variety of virtual settings.
The full article was originally published at PR Web, but is no longer available.
"A recent Harvard Business School study showed that virtual dating created favorable impressions of the other person and easier first meetings in the real world."
Recent study. Which one?
"People are Experience Goods: Improving Online Dating with Virtual Dates"
http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/frost%20chance%20norton%20ariely.pdf
Those researches did not study in depth any actual on line dating sites offering personality/compatibility matching methods nor any on line dating sites offering searching.
They only conducted 3 studies, most probably their conclusions are biased!
"Study 1: Fruitless Searching in Online Dating
Method and Results Participants (N = 132; 49 male, Mage = 39.4, SD = 11.9) completed the survey by following a link on an online dating website."
"Study 2: People are Experience Goods
Method and Results Participants (N = 47; 37 male, Mage = 24.2, SD = 7.7) were unmarried individuals who completed this survey online as part of an unrelated series of experiments."
"Study 3: Virtual Dates
Method
Participants (N = 24; 12 male, Mage = 27.1, SD = 5.1) were recruited on an online dating website we created for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology community, thematchup.net. Participants completed the first two sections of the study – reading one profile and going on one Virtual Date – at their home or office by logging on to a preassigned website. One to two days later, all participants met face-to-face during a 4- minute speed-date. After the speed-date, participants answered four questions about their partner: ....
"
The older paper, "Online Match-Making with Virtual Dates", suggested only that virtual dating is a better way of getting to know someone than emailing and IMing.
Virtual Dating is only a sophisticated way to lose precious time, the same like using Second Life for dating purposes.
I think the better way of getting to know someone ...... is using a compatibility matching method.
Kindest Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
[email protected]
Posted by: Fernando Ardenghi | Apr 08, 2008 at 11:40 PM
Fernando,
In theory, “right fit” is the key to a successful relationship ... in practice, “fit” is difficult to measure.
Virtual dating (if used as a pre-date before meeting in person) is completely consistent with establishing fit. It’s a fantastic tool for uncovering common interests and points of divergence. You can also get a really good feel for whether the person is funny or a good listener.
Virtual dating is also a great tool for moving a potential relationship forward from the point of reading a profile. First face-to-face dates tend to be disappointing because of exaggerated expectations (Norton et al., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2007), and having a virtual date first allows individuals to build on their commonalities in a less stressful environment.
Combining “compatibility matching” with virtual dating can further help people determine whether the fit is right. I would be pleased to give you a demonstration of how OmniDate combines the two, [email protected].
Cheers,
Igor
Posted by: Igor Kotlyar, Ph.D. | Apr 09, 2008 at 12:36 PM