Randi Martin, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – Countless online dating sites offer help for those searching for their soul mate. Some do major advertising, and others are more specific, catering to certain groups or lifestyles. On them, singles can search for love by any criteria — looks, fitness, age, sexual preference, what kind of dog they own, marriage status, the color of their aura or if they like to dress up like a super hero.
Many paying sites offer a matching service, saying they can pair people through scientific research, basic math and compatibility testing. And for a fee, they will.
But does it really work?
According to a new study, when it comes to online dating, it’s buyer beware. A team of psychologists recently published “Online Dating: A Critical Analysis From the Perspective of Psychological Science,” which found there is no scientific evidence to aid matchmaking. In fact, scientists who have been studying relationships for 80 years say it is impossible to determine if two people have what it takes to maintain a long-term relationship before they’ve even met.
What these sites have done, however, is change the way many people meet and date, and there are some pluses to joining. Online daters have greater access to potential partners and are introduced to a larger selection of people they otherwise would not have met. They are then able to communicate with these people safely and conveniently. It also saves daters from the time consuming pursuit of a relationship, and at times does weed out the members that do not match your profile.
But, unless all the members who submitted profiles were honest in their answers, the so-called ‘matching’ is flawed, the study finds.
So, the writers of the study say scientifically, the sites don’t measure up. However, they say as online dating matures, it’s likely that more and more people will use the service, and the more that happens, the more dating sites could become a promising way for folks to find their perfect partner.
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