Looking for love on a laptop

According to Jui Ramaprasad, an assistant professor in the Desautels Faculty of Management, digital dating can be remarkably – and dishearteningly – similar to off-line interfacing.

“We still see these off-line social norms. Our results are derived from the idea men make the first move and that women leave this weak signal. It was more than surprising, it was disappointing – you would have hoped we have evolved beyond that.”

The “weak signal” in this case was a notification that one party had visited another’s profile: its equivalent in the offline world might be a meaningful look or flirtatious hair-toss. In a recent study, Ramaprasad’s team worked with a major online dating site to offer anonymity to 50,000 selected users, so that they could visit profiles without leaving a digital trail. It’s a feature without an obvious equivalent in the real world.

Read full article: McGill Publications, 25 April, 2016