Monday, May 30, 2011

Match eating Meetic


A carnivore dinosaur (Match) is going to eat a vegetarian dinosaur (Meetic).
C-Level executives are more worried about their golf scores than their company's long term strategy and innovations. The Online Dating Industry needs to kill the Matchmaking Industry, like computers killed typewriters. The biggest scammers are not from Ghana or Nigeria. They are precisely marketing executives from big sites. They use credit card billing trickery. Lack Of Innovation & Decadence can summarize the Online Dating Industry since years. The Online Dating Industry is performing like the Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Industry before the USA Food and Drug Administration was created. There is no/weak Legislation, no ID verification, low reliable background checks, no Quality Norms. No one compatibility matching method is Scientifically Proven.
 The entire Online Dating Industry for serious daters in 1st World Countries is a HOAX, performing as a Big Online Casino, with a low effectiveness/efficiency level of their matching algorithms (less than 10%).

The Online Dating Industry needs a major cataclysm to extinguish the big, old and obsolete dinosaurs (eHarmony, Match/Chemistry, PerfectMatch, Meetic, Parship, etc).

Is There A Peak Age for Entrepreneurship?

Adeo Ressi, the founder of The Founder Institute, had written the article
"Is There A Peak Age for Entrepreneurship?"
at TechCrunch where he explains "the traits of successful entrepreneurs, (as) the Founder Institute has conducted a battery of proprietary personality and aptitude tests on over 3,000 applicants worldwide, and then carefully tracked the progress of (their) nearly 1,000 enrolled founders and 350 graduates."
"The research shows that an older age is actually a better predictor of entrepreneurial success, and that three other traits also correlate strongly to success: strong fluid intelligence, high openness, and moderate agreeableness."

I remember I had told him in a previous article at TechCrunch also
"Want To Know How You Rank As An Entrepreneur? Take The Founder Institute Test"
" ... the Big 5 to assess personality is good for orientative purposes and not good enough for predictive purposes.
"Because the Big Five groups the more specific primary-level factors, feedback organized around the five Global Factor scales is more easily understood. For detailed feedback or predictive purposes, one should assess the more specific primary factors. Research has shown that more specific factors like the primary scales of the 16PF Questionnaire predict actual behavior better than the Big 5 Global Factors. For example, one extravert (a bold, fearless, high-energy type) may differ considerably from another (a sweet, warm, sensitive type), depending on the extraversion-related primary scale score patterns, so deeper analysis is typically warranted."
Extracted from the 16PF5 Manual
-----------------------------------
Moreover prospective entrepreneurs score different from prospective managers / businessmen / businesswomen.
prospective entrepreneurs mostly score VERY LOW in some specific variables I and M and VERY HIGH in E, Q1 and Q2, like this 16PF5 personality pattern
A:5.B:8.C:7.E:10.F:3.G:8.H:8.I:2.L:7.M:2.N:5.O:5.Q1:10.Q2:9.Q3:5.Q4:4"

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Your Online Dating Site Will Fail


Martin Zwilling had written the article "Startups: Your Online Dating Site Will Fail" 22 months ago, last July 2009
Now he upgraded the article to "Six Reasons To Rethink Your Online Dating Site"

I agree that "Investors are looking for real innovation, not copycats with more bells and whistles. So are customers. Let's give it to them."

Lack Of Innovation & Decadence can summarize the Online Dating Industry since years. The Online Dating Industry is performing like the Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Industry before the USA Food and Drug Administration was created. There is no/weak Legislation, no ID verification, low reliable background checks, no Quality Norms. No one compatibility matching method is Scientifically Proven.
The entire Online Dating Industry for serious daters in 1st World Countries is a HOAX, performing as a Big Online Casino, with a low effectiveness/efficiency level of their matching algorithms (less than 10%).
The Online Dating Industry needs a major cataclysm to extinguish the big, old and obsolete dinosaurs (eHarmony, Match/Chemistry, PerfectMatch, Meetic, Parship, etc).

The 3 latest discoveries in theories of romantic relationships development is the source to find the innovations the Industry needs.:
1) Several studies showing contraceptive pills users make different mate choices, on average, compared to non-users.
2) Behavioural Matching recommends people based on the type of person you have sent emails to, replied to, clicked on in search results and gone on dates with, but .... persons/people often report/select partner preferences that are not compatible with their choices in real life, that is why Behavioural Recommender Systems / Recommendation Engines perform so bad.
3) compatibility is all about STRICT personality similarity between prospective mates for long term mating with commitment.
*personality measured with a normative test.
*similarity: there are different ways to calculate similarity, it depends on how mathematically is defined.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

ihamoni (eHarmony Japan)


ihamoni (eHarmony Japan) now live! for pre registration only. You can use Babel Fish Japanese to English translator to see how the site looks.

eHarmony is not "scientifically proven"

Friday, May 27, 2011

Argentines are the most from Latin America who use social networks.

The Argentines are the most from Latin America who use social networks.
Full article at IAE CIMEL
54.9% Argentineans
47.9% Brazileans
41.0% Mexicans
usually log in to social networks.


Argentineans use mostly Facebook, not only for socialize but also for search and chat purposes.
In all three countries, it imposes a social use of Internet (66% for Argentina), followed by work (29%), study (23%), games (10%), recreation (5%), seeking information (9% ) and shopping (3%). In the case of social networks, the favorite activities of Argentines are uploading photos (81%), update the status (59%), discuss (82%), seeking information (48%), upload and view videos (38% ), join groups (36%), play (34%), information about events (31%), sharing publications (24%), comment on current events (22%) and receive information about releases (15%).
Social networks are also the most popular activity among those who access the Internet from the cell at a rate of 75.9% among users. In Mexico the percentage is 60% and 53% in Brazil.
Another fact: more than a third of Argentines of segments related to technology follow a brand in a social network.

The researchers did not use classical concepts of natives or digital immigrants and created new categories.
So they identified those living the technology as a "means"(42.9% of the Argentines), a tool that provides comfort and, although essential, do not feel absorbed. 
Followed by those who perceive the technology as "alien" (34%) and finally those who live as "self" (23.2%), and that permeates all aspects of your life: sleep, leisure and sociability.
In Brazil, the highest percentage (39.1%) were the "self", while in Mexico the majority (55.5%) feels technology as "alien".

Among the Argentineans highlights two subcategories: the "sociodigitales" (9.2%), immersed in the digital reality but with "a life beyond the technology" and "tecnoholic"(14%), aware of the negative impact that Internet in your personal life "less leisure or face to face with their friends" could not live without it.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

the Sonia Varaschin case

Not sure if the history is true (if the murderer met her at PlentyOfFish), but Legislation should had killed free online dating sites since years.
From Newspaper
From PlentyOfFish blog
The Online Dating Industry is performing like the Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Industry before the USA Food and Drug Administration was created. 
There is no/weak Legislation, 
no ID verification, 
low reliable background checks, 
no Quality Norms. 
No one compatibility matching method is Scientifically Proven.



LIFEPROJECT METHOD June 2011 video

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

IQ tests and dating

Several online dating sites offer / will offer IQ testing.
Please remember IQ tests are ability tests, answers could be Right or Wrong, so the questions should be sorted in increasing difficulty forming a Rasch Hierarchy. Those IQ tests sould be constructed using Modern Test Theory / Item Response Theory (IRT).
Most probably Intelligent Elite, Brainiac Dating, IQ Gorgeous and the others DO NOT meet IRT, they are all ... rubbish.


Intelligent Elite, Brainiac Dating, IQ Gorgeous












 Intelligent Elite offers the Swiss 16PT, an adapted Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) ipsative test (not to be mistaken with the normative 16PF5)

Many of those tests are extracted from Raven's progressive matrices




Monday, May 23, 2011

Major site with 16PF5 similar test.

As expected for the Online Dating Industry, a major online dating site is going to offer a new compatibility matching method soon.
I am not involved in that new proposal, but I know that major online dating site is going to assess the 16 personality traits as de 16PF5 normative test.

[Remember I had been saying:
Actual Online Dating sites are fully intoxicated with different versions of the FFI five factor inventory / Big5 or other proprietary models instead (like Chemistry or PerfectMatch), to measure personality traits, and all of those tests are more simplified versions than the 16PF5 normative personality test.]

In compatibility matching methods there are 2 steps:
1) to objectively measure personality traits or other human variables (with the 16PF5 test or similar test measuring exactly the 16 personality factors, the complete inventory as established by Dr. Raymond Cattell during 1949!!!).
2) to calculate compatibility between prospective mates.

I will be reviewing that new compatibility matching method and posting screenshots and useful insights soon.

I would love to see compatibility distributions curves, i.e:
If you are a man seeking women, to show the shape of the whole compatibility curve, how compatible you are with all the women in the entire database.


Friday, May 20, 2011

POF marriage predictor, 1 year ago

1 year ago, "Plentyoffish can now predict who you will marry".

Of course that predictor was a HOAX, a complete SCAM

Tech bubble, LinkedIn IPO

We are facing a large dotcom bubble fueled by venture risk investment funds, with 4 representing companies: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Groupon (investors who are dragging other investors to continue investing until they can sell shares of the company and recover leveraged money, but the last holder of shares is going to lose).

Many technology companies, without having a concrete business model (supposedly will generate revenue from advertising and premium subscription accounts) receive millions of dollars in funding to offer something free, acquiring fastly a large mass of captive users as if they had made them addicts, and then the exit strategy (for investors) is to get someone to buy the company at a staggering figure, as did Blogger, Fotolog, MySpace, YouTube, Skype, Bebo and others. They are like continually inflating balloons and they need to find a buyer before they explode. Recently Skype (a kite) was privately sold to Microsoft at USD 8,500 million. Skype was first sold to eBay in 2009 which resold to a private group of investors.

In 2003, 3 friends come together to create each one his social Web site, Reid Hoffman created LinkedIn, Tribe created by Mark Pinkus (then he created Zynga) and Jonathan Abrams created Friendster. Tribe and Friendster were commercial failures, while LinkedIn could never got a private buyer. To sell the shares and turn those pieces of paper in real money, LinkedIn had the strategy of going public, to start trading its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. If LinkedIn could not find a buyer, it will get thousands of buyers purchasing lower small parts (shares).

Thursday, May 19, 2011

HowAboutWe

HowAboutWe promotes "Go on dates with people who like what you like"

but If man A likes playing cards and woman B also likes playing cards, that does not mean man A likes woman B, or woman B can like man A with the same intensity or interest.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

If you plan to use/offer the 16PF5

If you plan to use/offer the 16PF5 in your online dating site please remember:

In compatibility matching methods there are 2 steps:
1) to objectively measure personality traits or other human variables (with the 16PF5 test).
2) to calculate compatibility between prospective mates.


You can use the 16PF5, the 15FQ+ clone or hire Dr. Houran and Dr. Lange's services to develop a copycat of the 16PF5 test at the cost of USD100,000 per norm and language.
You should administer the test to persons over 26 years old (personality consolidated) and better will be persons over 35 years old who had used online dating several times and failed (like eHarmony users) You can court eHarmony users, and steal them if begin offering the 16PF5 test to assess personality.

I recommend to control if women are normally cycling or taking contraceptive pills.
In a previous post in my blog I had explained that.
Men should take the test at least 3 times and also synchronize with biorhythms (for future Research purposes).
Women not taking contraceptive pills should take the test at least 3 times:  7 days before, in their real periods and 7 days after, and also synchronize with biorhythms (for future Research purposes).
Women  taking contraceptive pills should take the test at least 3 times:  7 days before, in their false periods and 7 days after, and also synchronize with biorhythms (for future Research purposes).
"Innovations: to take the 16PF5 test 3 times"
If a person can not take the 16PF5 test 3 times, he/she is not a serious dater and should be discarded.
Lots of persons could be interested in meeting/contacting other persons sharing nearly the same personality because they will be *predictable* for them.
I think women will love a rational explanation of why they need to take the test 3 times, with these 2 fresh papers
"Human oestrus" Gangestad & Thornhill (2008)
explains that "Only short-term but not long-term partner preferences tend to vary with the menstrual cycle"
"Does the contraceptive pill alter mate choice in humans?" Alvergne & Lummaa (2009)
If you carefully read that milestone paper you will discover that although men do not take contraceptive pills, they detect women who do not take and women who take those pills or other hormonal contraceptive methods.

A Marketing campaign should be incisive in this new discovery:
contraceptive hormonal methods alter mate choice in humans because only short-term but not long-term partner preferences tend to vary with the menstrual cycle.

PLEASE DO REMEMBER:
In compatibility matching methods there are 2 steps:
1) to objectively measure personality traits or other human variables (with the 16PF5 test).
2) to calculate compatibility between prospective mates.

Breaking "the online dating sound barrier" is to achieve far better precision than searching on one's own or mutual filtering.

Actual Online Dating sites are fully intoxicated with different versions of the FFI five factor inventory / Big5 (eHarmony, MeeticAffinity, Parship, Be2) or other proprietary models instead (like Chemistry or PerfectMatch), to measure personality traits, and all of those tests are more simplified versions than the 16PF5 normative personality test.

Breaking "the online dating sound barrier" is to achieve at least:
3 most compatible persons in a 100,000 persons database.
12 most compatible persons in a 1,000,000 persons database.
48 most compatible persons in a 10,000,000 persons database.
100 times better than Compatibility Matching Algorithms used by actual online dating sites!

The only way to achieve that is:
- using the 16PF5 normative personality test, available in different languages to assess personality of members, or a proprietary test with exactly the same traits of the 16PF5. The ensemble of the 16PF5 is: 10E16, big number as All World Population is nearly 6.7 * 10E9
- expressing compatibility with eight decimals, like The pattern 6.7.6.8.9.6.7.7.8.7.2.5.8.7.3.4 is 92.55033557%  +/- 0.00000001% similar to the pattern 7.7.6.8.8.7.6.5.8.7.4.5.7.7.3.4
Using a quantized pattern comparison method (part of pattern recognition by cross-correlation) to calculate similarity between prospective mates. guess.... LIFEPROJECT METHOD.

That is the only way to revolutionize the Online Dating Industry.

All other proposals are .............. NOISE

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

ASoundMatch and Behavioural Recommender Systems

Last January 2008 I had tested ASoundMatch and posted a comment at OnlineDatingInsider
saying "…..
matches with a high likelihood of compatibility because they have a similar music lifestyle and also similar personality traits.
…..
How it can be proved?
Also profiling by voice analysis, image analysis, music/video preferences, handwriting analysis, color preferences and other == lack of precision by distortion!"





I had also posted about punches to Behavioural Recommender Systems / Recommendation Engines for Online Dating sites:
NEW and FRESH paper, punch to Behavioural Recommenders.
a big punch to Behavioural Recommender Systems
Two papers debunking speeddating for serious dating
Someone told me "People need to improve their mate-hunting skills." in a private email.

I strongly agree with the paper:
"Perceptions of Ideal and Former Partners' Personality and Similarity"
Pieternel Dijkstra / Dick P. H. Barelds / University of Groningen, The Netherlands
..... Our findings may help understand why so many relationships end in divorce due to mismatches in personality.
Discussion
Our findings strongly support the 'similarity-attraction' hypothesis: Individuals clearly desire a potential partner with a similar personality.
In addition to finding a mate with a similar personality, our study showed that individuals seek a mate who is slightly 'better' than they are: They prefer a mate who is somewhat less neurotic, more agreeable, more conscientious, more open and more extraverted than they are themselves.
.... mismatches in personality are a frequently mentioned cause for relationship break-up. If former partners indeed have dissimilar personalities, our findings underline how difficult it is for many people to select a mate with a similar personality, or, alternatively, how little value individuals put on finding a similar partner in terms of personality.
The present study's results, as well as the results found in previous studies (e.g., Eastwick & Finkel, 2008), may be used to educate people, especially singles, about what really matters in long-term relationships, for instance, similarity in personality, instead of complementarity.

--------

In compatibility matching methods there are 2 steps:
1) to objectively measure personality traits or other human variables (with the 16PF5 test).
2) to calculate compatibility between prospective mates.

Breaking "the online dating sound barrier" is to achieve far better precision than searching on one's own or mutual filtering.

Actual Online Dating sites are fully intoxicated with different versions of the FFI five factor inventory / Big5 or other proprietary models instead (like Chemistry or PerfectMatch), to measure personality traits, and all of those tests are more simplified versions than the 16PF5 normative personality test.

Breaking "the online dating sound barrier" is to achieve at least:
3 most compatible persons in a 100,000 persons database.
12 most compatible persons in a 1,000,000 persons database.
48 most compatible persons in a 10,000,000 persons database.
100 times better than Compatibility Matching Algorithms used by actual online dating sites!

The only way to achieve that is:
- using the 16PF5 normative personality test, available in different languages to assess personality of members, or a proprietary test with exactly the same traits of the 16PF5. The ensemble of the 16PF5 is: 10E16, big number as All World Population is nearly 6.7 * 10E9
- expressing compatibility with eight decimals, like The pattern 6.7.6.8.9.6.7.7.8.7.2.5.8.7.3.4 is 92.55033557%  +/- 0.00000001% similar to the pattern 7.7.6.8.8.7.6.5.8.7.4.5.7.7.3.4
Using a quantized pattern comparison method (part of pattern recognition by cross-correlation) to calculate similarity between prospective mates.

That is the only way to revolutionize the Online Dating Industry.

All other proposals are .............. NOISE

ASSOCIATION for RESEARCH in PERSONALITY



ASSOCIATION for RESEARCH in PERSONALITY
2nd Biennial Conference / Riverside, California / June 16-18, 2011


Featured posters
Poster 1.02
"Regional stereotypes do not reflect personality traits of real people"
Martina Hřebíčková / Institute of Psychology Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic


Poster 1.05
"Do Birds of a Feather Flock Together? A Differential Approach to Similarity Effects in the Association Between Personality Traits and Life Satisfaction in Intimate Relationships"
Katrin Furler & Veronica Gomez / University of Basel
In the past years personality psychology started to shift from a focus on the individual to a dyadic approach emphasizing the importance of the social context. In this vein, expressions such as 'birds of a feather flock together' have received special empirical attention in studies investigating whether romantic partners have similar personalities and whether personality similarity in couples is associated with higher levels of well-being.
The aim of this contribution is to generate knowledge on similarity effects in couples' personality. We adopt Furr's (2010) differential approach in the study of profile similarity effects and compute three similarity indices, i.e., shape, elevation, and scatter similarity, to test how profile similarity indices are related to life satisfaction of both partners. Additionally, we examine the association between personality similarity on a trait level and life satisfaction of both partners. Data came from the last wave of the Swiss Household Panel, which contains measures of the Big Five and life satisfaction for 1,608 couples living in the same household.



Poster 2.06
"Personality similarity between self, partner and parents"
Dick P. H. Barelds & Pieternel Dijkstra / University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Personality characteristics and similarity with regard to personality characteristics have been found to be important factors in both forming and maintaining intimate relationships.
As a result of sexual imprinting, it can be expected that individuals tend to select mates that, with regard to their personality, resemble their opposite sex parent. This study examines this issue by studying similarity with regard to personality (in terms of the Five-Factor Model of personality) of individuals, their partners, their fathers, and their mothers. Ratings are currently available from 354 participants. Preliminary analyses show several significant positive relations for self-partner similarity, selfmother and self-father similarity (regardless of participant sex), and partner-mother and partner-father similarity (also regardless of participant sex). Our study suggests that previous study's findings on the tendency to search for a similar partner are not only the result of a need for harmony (as assumed by, for instance, the similarity attraction hypothesis), but may also be attributed to sexual imprinting. Parent and partner self-ratings are currently being processed, and will be used to examine the effects of potential biases in the ratings, and the childparent relationship.



Poster 2.46
"Goal Complementarity in Intimate Relationships: Is Couples' Perception of Acting in Concert Positively Related to Subjective Well-Being?"
Karin Stadler & Veronica Gomez / University of Basel
Previous evidence suggests that goal similarity in intimate relationships is positively related to relationship outcomes. However, little is known on the association between goal complementarity (i.e., the subjective perception of having goals that are in congruence with the partner's goals) and subjective well-being. We address this issue with data from 153 couples within the ongoing 'Co-Development in Personality Across the Life Span' study. Preliminary results suggest a positive association between goal complementarity and relationship as well as life satisfaction. We will further analyze these associations from a dyadic perspective and present results based on Actor-Partner Interdependence Models in order to elucidate actor and partner effects of goal complementarity on subjective well-being of both partners.


Poster 2.56
"The Relations Between Actual and Perceived Similarity in Personality"
Jessica Wortan1 & Dustin Wood2 / 1Michigan State University 2Wake Forest University
Similarity has been frequently studied in psychology, especially in how it relates to various outcomes (e.g., Levinger & Breedlove, 1966). The purpose of this project is to better understand perceptions of similarity to another person and its links to personality similarity. What does it mean when two people say they perceive themselves as similar? We used several measures of mathematical similarity in personality (Furr, 2008, 2010; Wood, 2008). Overall similarity in self-ratings was related to perceptions of similarity, but having self-perceptions that were more similar than chance showed only negligible associations with perceived similarity. There were strong relationships between perceived similarity and similarity in how individuals rated their own characteristics and the characteristics of a target, particularly for the trait of extraversion.
Raters perceived targets as more similar when they rated that target as more average. Finally, it was demonstrated that the normative and desirable profile were strongly correlated. This suggests that what is most important to feelings of similarity is not having similarity in selfratings, but perceiving the other person as having desirable characteristics. Perceptions of similarity do seem to be predicted by personality, but only a small portion of this prediction is based on actual similarity in personality.



Do you see how Latest Research in Theories of Romantic Relationships Development shows: compatibility is all about a high level on personality* similarity* between prospective mates for long term mating with commitment?
*personality measured with a normative test.
*similarity: there are different ways to calculate similarity, it depends on how mathematically is defined.


Also Personality Based Recommender Systems are the next generation of recommender systems because they perform FAR better than Behavioural ones (past actions and pattern of personal preferences)
That is the only way to improve recommender systems, to include the personality traits
of their users and they need to calculate personality similarity between them.


WorldWide, there are 5,000 -over five thousand- online dating sites
 but no one
is using the 16PF5 to assess personality of its members!
 but no one
calculates similarity with a quantized pattern comparison method!
 but no one
can show Compatibility Distribution Curves to each and every of its members!
 but no one
is scientifically proven!

NEW and FRESH paper, punch to Behavioural Recommenders.

This NEW and FRESH paper is another big punch to Behavioural Recommender Systems / Recommendation Engines for Online Dating sites, like the ones used at Match or PlentyOfFish and the one Meetic plans to launch soon!!!
"Product innovation, the growth engine behind Meetic Group's development. ...These Apps will allow users to import and integrate into their profile their tastes in terms of music, films and literature, their adherence to various communities and other information related to their social network usage. This wealth of information will thus allow Meetic to further improve the way it puts users in contact with each other through a new Social Matching algorithm."

"How Shared Preferences in Music Create Bonds Between People: Values as the Missing Link" 2011
Diana Boer, Ronald Fischer, Micha Strack, Michael H. Bond, Eva Lo, and Jason Lam
How can shared music preferences create social bonds between people?
A process model is developed in which music preferences as value-expressive attitudes create social bonds via conveyed value similarity. The musical bonding model links two research streams: (a) music preferences as indicators of similarity in value orientations and (b) similarity in value orientations leading to social attraction. Two laboratory experiments and one dyadic field study demonstrated that music can create interpersonal bonds between young people because music preferences can be cues for similar or dissimilar value orientations, with similarity in values then contributing to social attraction. One study tested and ruled out an alternative explanation (via personality similarity), illuminating the differential impact of perceived value similarity versus personality similarity on social attraction. Value similarity is the missing link in explaining the musical bonding phenomenon [
and not personality similarity], which seems to hold for Western and non-Western samples and in experimental and natural settings.

Empirical evidence has shown that music preferences are associated with both personality traits and value orientations. Individuals who reject conservative values and who endorse openness to change values like listening to rock and punk; individuals who are guided by self-enhancing and openness values tend to like popular music, such as international pop and hip-hop; and individuals with self-transcendent value priorities like listening to jazz and classic. These associations seem to hold across Western and non-Western cultures and across value measurements.

Study 1
Participants were 338 German music fans of rock, metal, hip-hop, and electronic music (electro). Their average age was 17.80 (SD = 4.49), and 189 participants were female.
Study 1 supports the proposed musical bonding model: Shared music preferences can generate social attraction, and this effect is likely to be induced by assumed value similarity.
However, values and personality are related concepts and music taste is related to personality
traits. Hence, assumed similarity in personality traits, not accounted for in Study 1, might
be an alternative explanation for the musical bonding effect.
In Study 2, similarity in values and personality was directly measured instead of getting separate ratings of self-ratings and attributed ratings.
Participants were 67 German fans of metal and hip-hop music (age M = 21.15 years, SD =
6.35; n = 50 male participants, n = 36 metal fans).
Similarity in value orientations and personality traits between participants and targets was assessed using direct similarity assessments.
Value similarity and personality similarity showed good internal consistency (value similarity: Cronbach's alpha = .94; personality similarity: Cronbach's alpha = .93).
Study 3 examined musical bonding in a natural setting.
Participants were 94 undergraduate students at a university in Hong Kong (age M = 20.44, SD = 1.19; n = 34 female) who had been randomly allocated to dormitories by the university administration 1 to 2 months earlier.
Two individuals always share one room. The sample composed 47 same-sex roommate dyads (30 male, 17 female dyads). Participants answered a self-report survey including questions about their value orientations, music preferences, social attraction and perceived similarity of their roommate, and demographic details including age, gender, subject of study, and nationality.
Music preference similarity was calculated based on raw score ratings of music styles in the three factors: Western styles, Chinese classical styles, and pop styles (Pearson correlation).

We showed that value expression through music is likely to lead to social bonding but not similarity in basic personality traits.

This paper is not in the TOP 33 scientific papers for the Online Dating Industry. (a list I had sent you in a previous email)
Please add as number 34.

[Please remember:
Behavioural Matching recommends people based on the type of person you have sent emails to, replied to, clicked on in search results and gone on dates with, but .... persons/people often report/select partner preferences that are not compatible with their choices in real life -uncovered by Eastwick & Finkel (2008); Kurzban & Weeden (2007); Todd, Penke, Fasolo, & Lenton (2007)-.

Latest Research in Theories of Romantic Relationships Development shows: compatibility is all about a high level on personality* similarity* between prospective mates for long term mating with commitment
*personality measured with a normative test.
*similarity: there are different ways to calculate similarity, it depends on how mathematically is defined.
Also several studies showing contraceptive pills users make different mate choices, on average, compared to non-users.]


Also read
birds of a feather sing together (the 1998 paper)
birds of a feather sing together (the post at SignalPatterns Labs 2008)

The notion of music compatibility was pioneered by Dr. Jason Rentfrow and Dr. Sam Gosling, but never succeed.
"Several empirical studies in music psychology have identified connections between the styles of music people like listening to and a range of personality traits.
...
Another study concerned with the links between music preferences and relationship satisfaction focused on music-preference similarity among university roommates living in the US. The roommates who participated in the study completed several surveys, including a personality questionnaire, a music preference measure, and a few questions about how much they enjoyed living with their roommate and whether they would choose to live with them the following year. The results showed that roommates with similar personalities were no more likely to enjoy their living arrangement than were roommates with different personalities. However, roommates with similar music preferences enjoyed more pleasant and satisfying relationships and reported a stronger desire to continue living together than did roommates with different music preferences. Closer inspection of the results indicated that roommates with similar preferences for rap and dance music, and similar preferences for classical and jazz music were the most likely to enjoy their living situations. Furthermore, students tended to segregate themselves into dorms with other students that tended to match their music preferences than any of the other characteristics measured in the study.
...
Given that there are connections between the styles of music people listen to and their personalities, it is reasonable to suppose that people with similar music preferences may be more likely to get along and enjoy happy relationships than people with radically different preferences for music."

ALL RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS / RECOMMENDATION ENGINES ARE RUBBISH FOR SERIOUS DATERS.

Monday, May 16, 2011

attraction–similarity model and dating couples PAPER


"The attraction–similarity model and dating couples: Projection, perceived similarity, and psychological benefits" March 2011
Marian M. Morry, Mie Kito and Lindsey Ortiz.
University of Manitoba, Canada
Abstract
According to the attraction–similarity model, relationship quality leads to perceptions of partner–self similarity. Relationship quality and perceived similarity then provide psychological benefits for the perceiver. Across 3 studies, relationship quality positively predicted perceptions of similarity. Study 1 indicated that for moderate, but not low, relationship-relevant traits, individuals projected the self onto the dating partner as a way of perceiving similarities.
In Study 2, priming high, as opposed to low, relationship quality led to greater perceived similarity on the moderately relevant traits. Study 3 indicated greater perceived similarity between self and dating partner than between self and average same-gender student on the moderately relevant traits. Relationship quality and perceived similarity with the dating partner on the moderately relevant traits also predicted psychological benefit.


See the Methods: Participants, Materials and Procedures of the 3 studies to analyze how they had reached the conclusions. The authors should use data from online dating sites and repeat their procedures using the 16PF5 and not the Big5. Anyway they will conclude compatibility is all about a high level on personality* similarity* between prospective mates for long term mating with commitment.
*personality measured with a normative test.
*similarity: there are different ways to calculate similarity, it depends on how mathematically is defined.


Since several years ago, I had been hammering your head, drilling your brain with the personality similarity concept. Please notice I will continue with this policy for the next 10 years, until 2021 if necessary.

WorldWide, there are 5,000 -over five thousand- online dating sites
 but no one
is using the 16PF5 to assess personality of its members!
 but no one
calculates similarity with a quantized pattern comparison method!
 but no one
can show Compatibility Distribution Curves to each and every of its members!
 but no one
is scientifically proven!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

TOP papers for the Online Dating Industry

TOP scientific papers for the Online Dating Industry

TOP researchers are Drs. Dick P. H. Barelds & Pieternel Dijkstra

1- "Do Birds of a Feather Flock Together? A Differential Approach to Similarity Effects in the Association Between Personality Traits and Life Satisfaction in Intimate Relationships" 2011
Katrin Furler & Veronica Gomez.
2- "Personality similarity between self, partner and parents" 2011
Dick P. H. Barelds & Pieternel Dijkstra.
3- "An assessment of positive illusions of the physical attractiveness of romantic partners" 2011
Dick P. H. Barelds, Pieternel Dijkstra, Namkje Koudenburg and Viren Swami.
4- "Perceptions of Ideal and Former Partners' Personality and Similarity" 2010
Pieternel Dijkstra / Dick P. H. Barelds.
5- "Personality similarity, perceptual accuracy, and relationship satisfaction in dating and married couples" 2011
Mieke Decuyper, Marleen De Bolle and Filip De Fruyt.
6- "Goal Complementarity in Intimate Relationships: Is Couples' Perception of Acting in Concert Positively Related to Subjective Well-Being?" 2011
Karin Stadler & Veronica Gomez.
7- "It's that time of the month: The effects of hormonal shifts on female mate value, depressive symptomology, and short term mating orientation." 2011
Heather Adams and Victor Luévano.
8- "The Relations Between Actual and Perceived Similarity in Personality" 2011
Jessica Wortan & Dustin Wood.
9- "Similarity predicts relationship satisfaction in Brazil" 2011
Erina Lee, Gian Gonzaga.

10- "Assortative mating, convergence, and satisfaction in married couples" 2010
Gian Gonzaga, Steve Carter and J. Galen BuckWalter.
11- "Predicting relationship and life satisfaction from personality in nationally representative samples from three countries: the relative importance of actor, partner, and similarity effects." 2010
Portia Dyrenforth et al.
12- "Why Mate Choices are not as Reciprocal as we Assume: The Role of Personality, Flirting and Physical Attractiveness" 2010
Lars Penke, et al.
13- "What lies beneath: The linguistic traces of deception in online dating profiles. Journal of Communication." 2010
Toma, C. & Hancock, J.T.
14- "Genetic and environmental influences on personality trait stability and growth during the transition to adulthood: A three wave longitudinal study." 2010
Hopwood, C.J., Donnellan, M.B., Blonigen, D.M., Krueger, R.F., McGue, M., Iacono, W.G., & Burt, S.A.
15- "Is spousal similarity for personality a matter of convergence or selection?" 2010
Mikhila N. Humbad, M. Brent Donnellan, William G. Iacono et al.
16- "From Dating to Mating and Relating: Predictors of Initial and Long-Term Outcomes of Speed-Dating in a Community Sample" 2010
Lars Penke, et al.
17- "The attraction–similarity model and dating couples: Projection, perceived similarity, and psychological benefits" 2010
Marian M. Morry, Mie Kito and Lindsey Ortiz.

18- "Personality influences on marital satisfaction: Integrating the empirical evidence using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) model" 2009
Charania & Ickes.
19- "Does the contraceptive pill alter mate choice in humans?" 2009
Alvergne & Lummaa.

20- "Human oestrus" 2008
Gangestad & Thornhill
21- "Only the congruent survive - Personality similarities in couples. Personality and Individual Differences" 2008
Rammstedt & Schupp. 
22- "Personality trait change in adulthood." 2008
Roberts, B. W. & Mroczek, D.
23- "Do People Know What They Want: A Similar or Complementary Partner?" 2008
Dick P. H. Barelds & Pieternel Dijkstra.
24- "Personality Trait Similarity Between Spouses in Four Cultures" 2008
McCrae, Martin, Hrebícková, Urbánek, Boomsma et al.
 
25- "Love at first sight or friends first? Ties among partner personality trait similarity, relationship onset, relationship quality, and love" 2007
Dick P. H. Barelds & Pieternel Dijkstra.
26- "Preferences for symmetry in faces change across the menstrual cycle." 2007
Little, A. C., Jones, B. C., Burt, D. M. & Perrett, D. I. 
27- "Assortative mating for perceived facial personality traits. Personality and Individual" 2006
Little, AC, Burt, DM & Perrett, DI.
 
28- "The ideal romantic partner personality" 2006
Figueredo, Sefcek & Jones.
29- "Social Structure and Personality Assortment Among Married Couples" 2006
Bekkers, van Aken & Denissen.

---------------------

30- "A New Method for Dimensionality Reduction using K-Means Clustering Algorithm for High Dimensional Data Set" International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 13– No.7, January 2011
31- "Addressing the new user problem with a personality based user similarity measure" 2010
Marko Tkalcic, Matevz Kunaver, Andrej Kosir, Jurij Tasic
32- "Towards to Psychological-based Recommenders Systems: A survey on Recommender Systems" 2010
Maria Augusta Nunes
33- "Design and User Issues in Personality-based Recommender Systems" 2010
Rong Hu


If you are a researcher and you are not cited in this list, it is because you had fallen asleep!


Do you see how Latest Research in Theories of Romantic Relationships Development shows: compatibility is all about a high level on personality* similarity* between prospective mates for long term mating with commitment?
*personality measured with a normative test.
*similarity: there are different ways to calculate similarity, it depends on how mathematically is defined.

Also several studies showing contraceptive pills users make different mate choices, on average, compared to non-users and people often report partner preferences that are not compatible with their choices in real life [uncovered by Eastwick & Finkel (2008); Kurzban & Weeden (2007); Todd, Penke, Fasolo, & Lenton (2007)].

a big punch to Behavioural Recommender Systems


These new papers are a big punch to Behavioural Recommender Systems / Recommendation Engines for Online Dating sites, like the ones used at Match or PlentyOfFish:

"Perceptions of Ideal and Former Partners' Personality and Similarity"
Pieternel Dijkstra / Dick P. H. Barelds / University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Abstract
The present study aimed to test predictions based on both the 'similarity-attraction' hypothesis and the 'attraction-similarity' hypothesis, by studying perceptions of ideal and former partners. Based on the 'similarity-attraction' hypothesis, we expected individuals to desire ideal partners who are similar to the self in personality. In addition, based on the 'attraction-similarity' hypothesis, we expected individuals to perceive former partners as dissimilar to them in terms of personality. Findings showed that, whereas the ideal partner was seen as similar to and more positive than the self, the former partner was seen as dissimilar to and more negative than the self. In addition, our study showed that individuals did not rate similarity in personality as very important when seeking a mate. Our findings may help understand why so many relationships end in divorce due to mismatches in personality.

Method
Participants and procedure
Participants were 871 (612 women, 259 men) members of two dating sites, one for college-educated singles under fifty looking for a long-term mate (match4me.nl; n = 421) and one for singles over fifty looking for a long-term mate (50plusmatch.nl; n = 450). Mean age was 50.18 years (SD = 11.32, range 19-78).

Measures
Personality. Personality characteristics were assessed by an abridged version of Shafer's 30-item bipolar rating scale designed to measure the Five-Factor Model of personality.
The participants answered the personality items three times in total, thus providing self-ratings, ratings of their ideal partner and ratings of their former partner.

Discussion
Our findings strongly support the 'similarity-attraction' hypothesis: Individuals clearly desire a potential partner with a similar personality.
In addition to finding a mate with a similar personality, our study showed that individuals seek a mate who is slightly 'better' than they are: They prefer a mate who is somewhat less neurotic, more agreeable, more conscientious, more open and more extraverted than they are themselves.
.... mismatches in personality are a frequently mentioned cause for relationship break-up. If former partners indeed have dissimilar personalities, our findings underline how difficult it is for many people to select a mate with a similar personality, or, alternatively, how little value individuals put on finding a similar partner in terms of personality.

The present study's results, as well as the results found in previous studies (e.g., Eastwick & Finkel, 2008), may be used to educate people, especially singles, about what really matters in long-term relationships, for instance, similarity in personality, instead of complementarity.


"An assessment of positive illusions of the physical attractiveness of romantic partners"
Dick P. H. Barelds, Pieternel Dijkstra, Namkje Koudenburg and Viren Swami

Abstract
Positive illusions about a partner's physical attractiveness occur when individuals' ratings of their partner's attractiveness are more positive than more objective ratings. Ratings that may serve as a 'reality benchmark' include ratings by the partner him/herself and observer ratings. The present study compared the effects of using different reality benchmarks on the strength of positive partner physical attractiveness illusions (n = 70 couples). Results showed that individuals positively biased both their own and their partner's physical attractiveness. As a consequence, using a partner's self-ratings as a reality benchmark results in an underestimation of positive illusions. Presenting participants with photographs had a small effect on physical attractiveness ratings provided by women, showing that photographs, to some extent, might constrain positive illusions.


----------------
Do you see how Latest Research in Theories of Romantic Relationships Development shows: compatibility is all about a high level on personality* similarity* between prospective mates for long term mating with commitment?
*personality measured with a normative test.
*similarity: there are different ways to calculate similarity, it depends on how mathematically is defined.


Also several studies showing contraceptive pills users make different mate choices, on average, compared to non-users and people often report partner preferences that are not compatible with their choices in real life [uncovered by Eastwick & Finkel (2008); Kurzban & Weeden (2007); Todd, Penke, Fasolo, & Lenton (2007)].

Friday, May 13, 2011

ARP 2011 Featured posters about dating

ASSOCIATION for RESEARCH in PERSONALITY
2nd Biennial Conference / Riverside, California / June 16-18, 2011

Featured posters about dating

Symposium 8.4:
"Personality and meta-accuracy: A social relations model approach"
Mitja D. Back / University Mainz, Germany
Meta-accuracy – how well we know how others view us – is an important but seldom studied domain of interpersonal abilities.
Following a personality-oriented social relations model approach, four distinct kinds of individual differences in meta-accuracy can be distinguished:
Generalized meta-accuracy (differences in how well one knows how others view oneself),
Perceiver meta-accuracy (differences in how well others know how one generally views them),
and two forms of dyadic meta-accuracy (differences in how well one knows others unique impression of oneself, differences in how well others know one's own unique impressions of them).
Individual differences in meta-accuracy were investigated using three realistic interpersonal designs: an observation of one complete group of freshmen at zero and long-term acquaintance (Study 1), interactions of unacquainted students in small discussion groups (Study 2), and singles in speed-dating sessions (Study 3).
Results show that (a) meta-accuracies are generally small at zero acquaintance but (b) systematically increase with level of acquaintance. Moreover, (c) there was substantial variance in metaaccuracies across individuals and (d) these individual differences were differentially predicted by personality. Results underline the use of a componential approach to individual differences in the accuracy of interpersonal perceptions.
Future prospects for the study of personality and meta-accuracy are discussed.




Poster 2.09
"Evaluative Organization of Self- and Partner Knowledge in Relationships Founded Online"
Patrick Mayfield & Alicia Limke / University of Central Oklahoma
This project examines evaluative organization of self- and partner knowledge in the context of online dating and relationships in general.
Previous research (e.g. Showers & Zeigler-Hill, 2004; Showers & Limke, 2006) has suggested that evaluative organization at Time 1 predicts the stability of the relationship at Time 2, especially if the relationship experiences conflict in the interim. In the current study, approximately 103 participants completed the Evaluative Organization Inventory (EOI; Limke & Mayfield, 2010), an electronic version of the card sorting task used to assess evaluative organization (cf. Showers, 1992) and measures of relationship satisfaction and relationship closeness.
Preliminary results suggest that there are differences in 'default' styles of evaluative organization for individuals who meet their relationship partners online and individuals who meet their relationship partners in other ways. Results are also consistent with previous studies suggesting the vulnerability associated with compartmentalization of self- and partner knowledge as well as the ability to predict relationship outcomes by evaluative organizational style.

MEETIC 1st quarter of 2011

MEETIC (MEET - FR0004063097)
Results for the 1st quarter of 2011
Consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2011 totalled 46.2 million euros, up +6.5% compared to the first quarter of 2010 and up +4.6% on a constant forex basis.
Subscription sales (billings excluding deferred revenue) came to 47.3 million euros, up +8.8% on the same period of 2010.
The Group had 872,047 subscribers at 31st March 2011, compared to 858,197 at 31st December 2010 and 829,258 at 31st March 2010, giving a net increase of 13,850 subscribers over the first three months of the year.
But ...
Meetic carried out substantial marketing investments over the first three months of the year, thus spending 36.5 million euros or 79% of quarterly sales.
Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) was a negative 3 million euros at 31st March 2011 and there was an operating loss of -3.9 million euros.
Once the share in net income of Match Global Investments is taken into account, i.e. 0.5 million euros, the Group's attributable net profit for the first quarter of the year was a negative -3.2 million euros.
Shares had dropped again.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

OurTime, Astrology Compatibility

OurTime seems to be Match simplified seasoned with Astrology Compatibility powered by "MatchMe" for persons over 50 years old.
OurTime also includes 7 questions about "personality"
It also seems OurTime profiles had been imported from Match.
See sample from an Argentinean lady.
"singles over 50 are more interested in companionship and long-term relationships than in marriage, in contrast to younger groups"