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Quant Mark Econ (2010) 8:393427
DOI 10.1007/s11129-010-9088-6
Received: 28 September 2009 / Accepted: 12 April 2010 / Published online: 20 May 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
Abstract We estimate mate preferences using a novel data set from an online dating service. The data set contains detailed information on user attributes and the decision to contact a potential mate after viewing his or her profile. This decision provides the basis for our preference estimation approach. A potential problem arises if the site users strategically shade their true preferences. We provide a simple test and a bias correction method for strategic behavior. The main findings are (i) There is no evidence for strategic behavior.(ii) Men and women have a strong preference for similarity along many (but not all) attributes. (iii) In particular, the site users display strong same-race preferences. Race preferences do not differ across users with different age,
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11129-010-9088-6
Web End =10.1007/s11129-010-9088-6 ) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Note that previous versions of this paper (What Makes You Click?Mate Preferences and Matching Outcomes in Online Dating) were circulated between 2004 and 2006. Any previously reported results not contained in this paper or in the companion piece Hitsch et al. (2010) did not prove to be robust and were dropped from the final paper version.
G. J. Hitsch (B)
Booth School of Business, University of Chicago,5807 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA e-mail: [email protected]
A. Hortasu
Department of Economics, University of Chicago, 1126 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA e-mail: [email protected]
D. Ariely
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, 1 Towerview Drive, Box 90120, Durham, NC 27708-0120, USAe-mail: [email protected]
What makes you click?Mate preferences in online dating
Gnter J. Hitsch Ali Hortasu Dan Ariely
394 G.J. Hitsch et al.
income, or education levels in the case of women, and differ only slightly in the case of men. For men, but not for women, the revealed same-race preferences correspond to the same-race preference stated in the users profile.(iv) There are gender differences in mate preferences; in particular, women have a stronger preference than men for income over physical attributes.
Keywords Mate preferences Dating Marriage
JEL Classification C78 J12
1 Introduction
The...