I’m the first to admit it: we might be popular, we might create a lot of great relationships, we might blah blah blah. But OkCupid doesn’t really know what it’s doing. Neither does any other website. It’s not like people have been building these things for very long, or you can go look up a blueprint or something. Most ideas are bad. Even good ideas could be better. Experiments are how you sort all this out. Like this young buck, trying to get a potato to cry.

We noticed recently that people didn’t like it when Facebook “experimented” with their news feed. Even the FTC is getting involved. But guess what, everybody: if you use the Internet, you’re the subject of hundreds of experiments at any given time, on every site. That’s how websites work.
Here are a few of the more interesting experiments OkCupid has run.
Experiment 1: LOVE IS BLIND, OR SHOULD BE
OkCupid’s ten-year history has been the epitome of the old saying: two steps forward, one total fiasco. A while ago, we had the genius idea of an app that set up blind dates; we spent a year and a half on it, and it was gone from the app store in six months.
Of course, being geniuses, we chose to celebrate the app’s release by removing all the pictures from OkCupid on launch day. “Love Is Blind Day” on OkCupid—January 15, 2013.
All our site metrics were way down during the “celebration”, for example:
But by comparing Love Is Blind Day to a normal Tuesday, we learned some very interesting things. In those 7 hours without photos:
And it wasn’t that “looks weren’t important” to the users who’d chosen to stick around. When the photos were restored at 4PM, 2,200 people were in the middle of conversations that had started “blind”. Those conversations melted away. The goodness was gone, in fact worse than gone. It was like we’d turned on the bright lights at the bar at midnight.
This whole episode made me curious, so I went and looked up the data for the people who had actually used the blind date app. I found a similar thing: once they got to the date, they had a good time more or less regardless of how good-looking their partner was. Here’s the female side of the experience (the male is very similar).
Oddly, it appears that having a better-looking blind date made women slightly less happy—my operating theory is that hotter guys were assholes more often. Anyhow, the fascinating thing is the online reaction of those exact same women was just as judgmental as everyone else’s:
Basically, people are exactly as shallow as their technology allows them to be.
Experiment 2: SO WHAT’S A PICTURE WORTH?
All dating sites let users rate profiles, and OkCupid’s original system gave people two separate scales for judging each other, “personality” and “looks.”
I found this old screenshot. The “loading” icon over the picture pretty much sums up our first four years. Anyhow, here’s the vote system:
Our thinking was that a person might not be classically gorgeous or handsome but could still be cool, and we wanted to recognize that, which just goes to show that when OkCupid started out, the only thing with more bugs than our HTML was our understanding of human nature.
Here’s some data I dug up from the backup tapes. Each dot here is a person. The two scores are within a half point of each other for 92% of the sample after just 25 votes (and that percentage approaches 100% as vote totals get higher).
In short, according to our users, “looks” and “personality” were the same thing, which of course makes perfect sense because, you know, this young female account holder, with a 99th percentile personality:

…and whose profile, by the way, contained no text, is just so obviously a really cool person to hang out and talk to and clutch driftwood with.
After we got rid of the two scales, and replaced it with just one, we ran a direct experiment to confirm our hunch—that people just look at the picture. We took a small sample of users and half the time we showed them, we hid their profile text. That generated two independent sets of scores for each profile, one score for “the picture and the text together” and one for “the picture alone.” Here’s how they compare. Again, each dot is a user. Essentially, the text is less than 10% of what people think of you.
So, your picture is worth that fabled thousand words, but your actual words are worth…almost nothing.
Experiment 3: THE POWER OF SUGGESTION
The ultimate question at OkCupid is, does this thing even work? By all our internal measures, the “match percentage” we calculate for users is very good at predicting relationships. It correlates with message success, conversation length, whether people actually exchange contact information, and so on. But in the back of our minds, there’s always been the possibility: maybe it works just because we tell people it does. Maybe people just like each other because they think they’re supposed to? Like how Jay-Z still sells albums?
To test this, we took pairs of bad matches (actual 30% match) and told them they were exceptionally good for each other (displaying a 90% match.)† Not surprisingly, the users sent more first messages when we said they were compatible. After all, that’s what the site teaches you to do.
But we took the analysis one step deeper. We asked: does the displayed match percentage cause more than just that first message—does the mere suggestion cause people to actually like each other? As far as we can measure, yes, it does.
When we tell people they are a good match, they act as if they are. Even when they should be wrong for each other.
The four-message threshold is our internal measure for a real conversation. And though the data is noisier, this same “higher display means more success” pattern seems to hold when you look at contact information exchanges, too.
This got us worried—maybe our matching algorithm was just garbage and it’s only the power of suggestion that brings people together. So we tested things the other way, too: we told people who were actually good for each other, that they were bad, and watched what happened.
Here’s the whole scope of results (I’m using the odds of exchanging four messages number here):
As you can see, the ideal situation is the lower right: to both be told you’re a good match, and at the same time actually be one. OkCupid definitely works, but that’s not the whole story. And if you have to choose only one or the other, the mere myth of compatibility works just as well as the truth. Thus the career of someone like Doctor Oz, in a nutshell. And, of course, to some degree, mine.
Hmmm. I am dating someone off of your site which told me I was only 46 percent compatible with tthem. She is one of the best people I’ve ever met in my life. we have so many things in common and are very much alike. so are we a rare case or is the system still inherently flawed in some type of manner. if you’re telling me that I’ll be happier with a 90 percent match than my 46 percent match that I have right now then I’m going to break up with her immediately and search for a 90. Sorry I thought I loved you. Men lie, women lie, but numbers don’t.
OkCupid is absolutely brilliant. I use the site and can’t help but have a good laugh at this.
To experiment on your customers without informing them in advance is a shitty and creepy thing to do, but it doesn’t surprise me one bit that it’s happening considering that companies like this are generally run by psychopaths and a lot of employees are willing to do anything for money. I also have my suspicions that sites like this have ties to the millitary’ intelligence’ services. I won’t even get into the high level of fake profiles you maintain on your shitty site, or the bogus messages I get from paid your deceivers to try and maintain the illusion that you actually provide a service that is worth a damn. I know exactly what this site is about and how it operates. I don’t pay any money to use your crappy site nor would I ever, nor would I recommend it to anybody, rather I’d warn them to stay away from it.
I really don’t pay attention to the” percentage” match. I’ve met some wonderful women on this site. I honestly have to say this is the best dating site I’ve been on! And I’ve been on a lot! No phony women on here! The questionnaire pretty much help you decide who you would like to talk to. DON’T CHANGE THE QUESTIONNAIRE!!! Do change the number of times you ask the same questions. A suggestion, how about NOT matching people who DON’T date outside they’re race with people who DO? Other than that, you could really corner the dating site market!!!
I have used a lot of sites and a lot of apps, and been stood up about 40 times in the past two years, and rarely gotten a second date when they did show up. I have met a lot of shallow people (granted, I’m in Southern California). I’m now engaged to be married to a man I met in an airport.
Here’s a gift:
If you love something, let it go. If it disappears, it’s because you stupidly trusted in fate instead of locking down an amazing partner.
We are too fatalistic when it comes to romance. “If it’s meant to be, it will happen.”
No.
While many people are meant to find each other, and soul mates are real, the universe doesn’t bend to write your love story. If someone makes your heart pound, reach out to them. Work for them. Learn to compromise. Learn to embrace their annoying quirks and in doing so, you’ll learn to be more compassionate with yourself too.
You don’t need an experiment to figure it out.
And you sure as hell don’t need OKCupid.
Been waiting for another one of these… for 3 years. These articles have always been fascinating. Thank you!
I’m not really convince that the current rating system works. The last few people that i developed relationships with from this site had a match percentage that should have made us incompatible. Now if you’re thinking that we were incompatible because we broke up, you’re only right about 1. Out of the 3 of them, one was a break up for many reasons, another was because of a 3 hour drive, and the last one ended tragically. All of them were well below 50% on the match scale.
Dat feel when no one ever reads the privacy statements and feels oh so offended that they may have been the result of research and analysis.
“In General. We may use information that we collect about you to:
perform research and analysis about your use of, or interest in, our products, services, or content, or products, services or content offered by others;”
Excellent article, and a great high level analysis of the site and its functions in connecting individuals. I encourage you to continue doing these, as I feel this helps us understand how relationships in general are changing in modern society.
Interesting, while i did not read the entire blog post i did read enough to know that, as i already know, i am an odd ball. The first thing i do is look at the questions, i read the profile a little and look at the pictures sometimes.
Clever ,, and publising this artical is just another experiment, big one, i wounder if you are going to publish its results
OK Cupid is pretty awesome but…
Can we somehow do an even better job with only matching our deal-makers ?
I can’t tell you how many guys DON’T READ MY PROFILE and just contact me on the basis of photos and ignore my deal makers…I want to have a kid–but so many men who don’t want kids or have ‘enough’ slip through your web and end up contacting me. Of course I look through their profiles and when I see the dreaded ‘doesn’t want kids’
my heart sinks.
Please give us a way to only let through peoplle whose deal-makers match up!
Match.com owns OKCupid now. This blog post was just a ploy to get you to leave OKC and pay for a “reliable” site like Match.
Well you have confirmed some of the beliefs I have developed just by watching folks for the last 60 odd years. Very interesting.
Thanks for letting us know the whys – and the results.
Whelp, now I know that beong pretty is all that matters. Or it seems to be. Or something…
You are a psychopath!
But the experiment was an interesting one about our real human nature and how we are manipulated by the (wrong) information and seduced to take hasty decisions and attitudes.
OKC is the best dating site by far.

And this research is to everyone’s benefit. I’m glad somebody cares enough to actually put their brains to work on this very very important topic for humankind. And seriously, i’m a researcher myself, good analyticl skills dude!
Uhm, do we have data on actual ‘scoring’? 4 messages as a benchmark is all nice, but…
Thanks anyway!
Steve
This is not even effing funny. People, esp. women can get targeted by predatory men on dating websites which can and does result in stalking, abuse, assault – and you play with real-life people just to see how this plays out?
Stop for a minute and think about what you are doing. This is not okay.
So, the essence of this blog post is that yes, online dating is essentially a crock of shite. What a revelation!
Do you remember the “Why You Should Never Pay For Online Dating” article ? Removed after OkCupid was sold to IAC.
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%). In the same range as searching by your own.
Cue “lies, damned lies and statistics” comment. I admire your despicable honesty, but…
Surely a 4-message exchange is too small to reveal much? E.G.
He: “Hey”
She: “Wow, lame opener”
He: “Screw you”
She: “Not gonna happen”
Not exactly the same as arranging to meet and selecting a sunset to ride off into, so how can you statistically infer anything just from such short ‘conversations’?
I’ve also noticed that accidental likes occur when women just click on my face in order to then snort in disgust/dismay and leave, because they don’t know how to ‘skip’ profiles.
I personally will declare OKC a success when I discover that the always-sad staff robot has hooked up with Roger from SEO Moz. Maybe you could get Rand to introduce them , he seems like a nice guy.
If I could have some wishes it would be that anybody who subscribed to a dating site this is what it would be;
1 They told the truth about their age.
2 They told the truth about their height.
3 They told the truth about their weight.
4 They told the truth about their where they live.
5 They told the truth about their photo and when it was taken.
6 That they upload a photo
I firmly believe that dating sites have a role to play in all this,i.e they could check it out, in this day and age of technology it is so easy to do.
The dating site could have a Skype conversation / video with this person, if the man / woman is serious about meeting a partner they will spend a little money on a web cam if they don’t already have one.
So if the photos,height,weight, etc. do not tally with what has been uploaded then this begs the question what has this person got to hide.
You do not gain or lose several inches in height overnight.
You do not gain or lose several kilos (except in unusual circumstances) over night.
If you actually live on number 1 Smith Street Anytown and you have put down that you live in the upperclass part of the city or a cottage / farm in the country then that is a no no also.
In terms of your financial status keep that very close to you till you get to know the person concerned.
Internet dating is now an accepted way of meeting people, so if you are really serious about meeting somebody then upload your recent photo.
Afterall you would not walk into to a bar with a paper bag over your head in the hope of meeting someone, besides bumping into things you would look really silly.
If if I see a profile without a photo I either delete the match or just move on, my thoughts are “what have you got to hide”.
In this day and age everybody might not have a camera or even a digital camera, but everybody has a mobile phone or has a friend with a mobile phone, if you have no friends or a mobile phone go down to your local photographers studio and get some taken, and make sure the photo is time and date stamped on the front in the corner, very easy to do.
In terms of matching, he / she likes this that and the other and she / he likes this that and the other, everybody is different and everybody has a different opinion, so sometimes it is good to not agree on certain things because that makes for a good debate.
Just because I don’t like tomato sauce on bacon does not mean that you have to like it also.
I fully expect people to laugh at my comments and say how silly etc. etc. but when when in reality, how many times have you been let down by number 1,2,3,4,5 or even 6 or even the matching.
I leave you with these thoughts and now go back to . . . . . . . . . .
The nature of the experiment Facebook carried out was completely different from the kind of stuff OKC does, which is similar to what any website does and quite innocuous. It’s one thing trying to influence someone’s behaviour. That’s sales, marketing and advertising. It’s another thing trying to manipulate their state of mind on a deeper level. What FB were doing was a psychological experiment and would have been fine had they first sought informed consent and then explained the experiment and the findings to the participants after it had ended. For some reason they chose not to do this.
What the hell are you talking about? Did I miss something?
I’m all in for your weird messages, so take this as a bump in the big picture and carry on
.
OKC knows I’ve criticle of the site since drastic changes started, and agressive advertisers were allowed to take over, since Match.com your sworn enemy purchased the site, since the blog died and pages just evaporated.
However, i am glad to hear there is still some research being done with the data abd at least two in the company care enough to allow a fresh post.
As for concerns of privacy, OKC has never done anything that would worry me in the least, then or now.
Someone replied that this experiment might cause them trouble. I think she is wrong. I think regardless of the data she saw, any trouble she gets in will happen regardless. Its up to the users to read questions, quizes and tbe profile, that data was not forged. As this experiment highlighted, people are shallow qnd far more concerned with looks and an easy answer, far less likely to actualy read anything, unless the lights were turned off.
I have been on this site for a bit less than 2 years in that time I have meet a grand total of 2, TWO, women. One actually became a relationship until she decided to become a lesbian and the other never really took off. Very few women bother to respond to messages and even fewer will make first contact. OK Cupid simply does not work.
Bastard !
Interesting. .. What else can I say.
Thanks for your information.
Cissie
If I was paying for OKCupid I might have unhappy feelings about this, but as a free user I don’t really care. I too tried removing my photo AND my details and got more messages after they were gone than before. Apparently people only like me when they don’t have to look at me and don’t know anything about me. A comforting thought.
I noticed a few things. There is a reason a person is single. Online dating is alot like submitting a resume. And finally I should open a yoga studio. I think your questioner is crap. I mean some of the best things about a new relationship is changing who.you are by embracing a new perspective on somthing. What I would like you to do is take the completely self absorbed people and let them date each other. Then take the people who put other’s before themselves in another category. Maybe you need some type of psychology test on here. But in my experience there is no way of telling weather or not a profile is genuine. Anyone can sell themselves as anything. And it’s a place where self absorbed lies prosper.
So there is no point in using this Web site, because we’ll never know if what we’re looking at or who we’re talking to is legitimate, or just part of an OK Cupid “experiment.” You proved the site is untrustworthy, and I sincerely hope you get sued.
All was very interesting,the girl I’ve messaging has no photos,I think we will meet Friday.
Sure it makes for cold, interesting, data.
But still, you’re just ass holes.
T.
I don’t know why I am surprised by reading this article. My experiences with social/dating sites has been less than rewarding. Actually, I never knew there were so many broken gay men In Los Angeles until I started looking for dates using the internet.
Yes, the results of your study seem to create a better understanding for me. I now can see that possibly I am the only person that is making an honest review of all of the information … although I will start my review and investigate men that I find attractive. Let’s be honest, I don’t know anything about this person so it has to be attraction physically that starts everything.
Never-the-less, the shallow, ego driven, low self-esteem of a self-centered person bringing but half a man child to the table is the only thing I have found that is draped in dishonesty, disrespect and a total waste of my time.
All very interesting however…..how and why does it take a while to identify the b.s.rzzzz??? Just kidding..glad you exist!!!!!
I like ok but haveing problems finding a woman that’s close to me seems some women on here says they love close to my city but when contacted they are all overseas no way to get them to me I want just local women but not many on here most to far away Other then that it’s ok
Welcome back! Stoked to have you back!
I’d like to put a picture with my profile but I have yet to figure out how to do that. A little help please.
Only got one thing to say and that this experiment is a load of rubbish as to me I wouldn’t communicatee with anyone without a picture as I don’t know if it’s some weirdo or not and at least a picture would give me a vague idea, also the percentage thing is stupid to as that doesn’t sway me, all that influences my decision is how close to me they love and what there profiles like so you can shove you stupid survey as it’s rubbish.
I like it but the website does have some fake profiles on there it would be nice to see if the picture really is them.
Great post! It shed some light on online dating for me.
I suppose a lot of people are angry because they really don’t understand what it takes to build a great site (or a great anything). They also might not realize that the experiments were run on a small portion of the total users. They also might not realize that everybody runs experiments “on them”: the brick-and-mortar store owner, the mobile phone company, the politician, your own family etc. It’s how they adapt to you.
Pick up a pairs for genetic compatibility and everything will be OK!
I have no object to you guys doing most of this. The data tracking is excellent and frankly how are you meant to figure out what does/doesn’t work without some sort of experimentation?
Step 1 to ethical business practices: Be honest.
Misrepresenting your users to each other is not that, and breaches consent.
By all means, examine your data in detail: The results are very nifty – but crossing the line into consent breach isn’t acceptable.
so far i think dating sites don’t work at all.
if youre not popular in RL, youre not popular in virtual
it started out as a way for unpopular ppl to be able to date someone.
this worked wel at first, until the popular ppl found out they could score easy online.
today online is the same popularity contest as it is offline, so there is no difference.
honest profiles are sometimes even rejected since they can show some negativity.
anyway ….
its my belief that i won’t get a single date out of OKC or any other site, since i’m unpopular in RL
*explanation of unpopular in my world*
hey your a nice guy
your allways so friendly
what? your not in a relation? can’t believe it ….
but no 1 wants anything exept telling that
*end explanation*
for this, a popolarity contest online won’t change a thing ….
but … i still use sites/apps like OKC … since you never know
How is people exchanging emails/phone numbers a lot quicker a good thing? Giving someone your email is one thing, but giving them your telephone number. Surely you should have some caution before you give your number out.
Like many people, I don’t tend to click on profiles that haven’t uploaded a picture, but I’m sure that would be viewed as me being superficial, when in reality it’s just a sensible way to act.
I don’t ever remember you having anything other than voting on someone’s picture. I think it’s a pity that we can’t vote on someone’s personality as well.
I, for one, greatly appreciate the match percentages. I’m currently dating someone from OkC who had about an 80% match with me, and in real life it’s pretty accurate (since it’s based a lot on the questions we answer). There are many things we disagree on and many of those things were obvious through his profile. But there are things not on the profile that we disagree on too. I wish there was a way to ensure that members accurately and fully portray themselves online. But that’s life I guess. Most people hide parts of themselves or unknowingly misrepresent themselves on and off OkC.
I think it was a very shitty thing to do! Dating is hard enough without a dating site saying we can help you n then manipulate things. You should really be ashamed
You can justify this anyway you want, but I HAVE noticed. I’m not impressed with your app/site, I HAVE noticed how often you *match* me with people I have 26-36% in common with? And how often you try to match me with OBESE and overweight people. The cageyness with which you don’t provide any customer service is also not appreciated. I paid for a year and would have canceled it a week later if given an opportunity to. Oh, and for paying for your service, I’ve had ONE date. And it was lame. Trust I will run your name down, give you bad reviews, and report you to my states BBB.
I’m not happy at all with ok Cupid… I’ve tried to get off for 2 mos n u keep taking money out of my account!! I keep getting message have deleted lots, told others I’m not interested! I’m looking for something more than most of these say they r!! I think it’s a good site for others but not me!! Plz take me off n don’t take anymore money out…. Dawn
All of my matches are 3+ hours away. Local search brings up about 10 people within driving distance and this is in a very populated area. No one uses this site.
You shouldn’t be worried about “making people guinea pigs”
You should be working on “getting people to use the site”