Online Dating: Doomsday or Rebirth?
(PRWEB) October 5, 2005 --
Online dating reached its peak in 2004, selling nearly a half-billion
dollars worth of services in US alone (1). However, the initial euphoria
of the first decade resulted in poor quality dating experiences, ranging
from misrepresented age and exaggerated personality to the “blind
date” phenomena, just on a world wide scale.
The promise of finding Ms. or Mr. Right fundamentally contradicts financial
motivation of dating industry. Even the name of the industry itself -
“dating” exactly describes its objective – to keep you
single, in the dating game - forever! Losing a $20 per month subscriber
to the cupid does not benefit the dating business at all. When we approached
one of the largest dating companies with an offer to improve their search
for partners with Compatti.com technology the answer was fairly blunt:
“We don’t want them to find their match. The longer they date
the better off we are”.
But what makes Compatti.com any better? The focus on a relationship and
its longevity. Right from inception of Compatti.com we believed in a relationship-focused
service. Yes, searching for a date, friend or partner is the first step
towards a relationship. However, Compatti.com is geared more towards providing
ongoing relationships advice on how to improve and nurture your current
or new relationship through its entire life. Our business is beneficial
for as long as your relationship lasts. Therefore, saying that Compatti.com
is just another online dating site is like saying that Britney Spears
is just a fragrance producer.
The desire of singles to find their match in a fruitful relationship is
evident by over 33 million hits on Google for the keywords “relationship”
and “match”. Some dating sites, responding to the lack of
relationship quality online, ventured into various psychological personality
tests, claiming to find you a “perfect match”. However, have
you ever questioned the reliability (2) of these online self-assessment
tests? Practically none of them publish their online retest reliability
data, for obvious reasons. Those who do, like the True LLC 120 page manual
(3), clearly confirms the retest reliability of online self-assessed psychological
tests is very low [on page 47 the average retest reliability from all
Factors for a person is 0.44. Since matching involves tests from two people
the resulted reliability is a multiple of individual retest reliabilities
0.44 * 0.44 = 0.19 or 19%]. “For every 1 match on eHarmony that
actually resulted in marriage, there were 999 “compatible”
m! atches that did not.”(4) Maybe this is why Match .com has quietly
abandoned their personality test.
How could these online personality tests be reliable? Think about how
differently you could answer those “psychological” questions
based on their context or your mood. Take the same test again in a few
months. Your answers most likely will be different. Moreover, even if
they were reliable tests, all they could tap into is your conscious mind,
leaving feelings, chemistry and the entire unconscious (5) world unexplored.
True love comes from your heart, not from your head!
Most of the modern psychological compatibility tests have evolved through
clinical research by marriage counselors. Many of them are based on well-respected
psychological test - Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - MBTI®. Its guideline
(6) clearly says “your MBTI results should be given to you as part
of a one-on-one … session…” with a professionally trained
practitioner, but not self-administered online or elsewhere. The published
retest reliability of MBTI® is 0.75(7) (only 3 out of every 4 tests
are repeatable and reliable). The reliability for matching 2 people is
0.75 * 0.75 = 0.56 or 56%. If the test, upon which rely many modern psychological
personality tests, gives us just over a 50% chance of finding a compatible
partner how could “online psychologists” claim they found
“the formula of love”?
Mrs. Myers and Mrs. Briggs (ironically, not psychologists by education)
developed MBTI® based on archetypes described by Swiss psychologist
Carl Jung (8). He also used Astrology in his practice:
“As I am a psychologist I’m chiefly interested in the particular
light the horoscope sheds on certain complications in the character. In
cases of difficult psychological diagnosis I usually get a horoscope in
order to have a further point of view from an entirely different angle.
I must say that I very often found that the astrological data elucidated
certain points which I otherwise would have been unable to understand.
From such experiences I formed the opinion that astrology is of particular
interest to the psychologist, since it contains a sort of psychological
experience which we call ‘projected’ – this means that
we find the psychological facts as it were in the constellations.”(9)
Evidently the roots of MBTI® traced back to Astrology. “How
can somebody call himself a student of human behavior … without
at least studying astrology? …psychology is practiced by a bunch
of well-paid incompetents. They can't fix a broken heart.” - says
Nobel Laureate, Dr. Kary B. Mullis (11). The 1995 Consumer Reports (12)
study also shows a low level of approval for psychologists in the profession
of marriage counseling: “Those who consulted a marriage counselor
were less likely to feel they'd been helped.”
“A horoscope that accurately reflects your personality can be cast
by a computer if you give it the correct birth data” says Dr. Kary
B. Mullis. If individual personality can be cast from date, time and place
of birth, this could be a retest reliable online compatibility test. When
Carl Jung analyzed astrological birth charts of 483 married couples (described
as “Synchronicity”(13)) he found a significant correlation
of some astrological aspects in marriage. He concludes“… the
psychological interpretation of horoscopes is still a very uncertain matter,
there is nevertheless some prospect today of causal explanation in conformity
with natural law. Consequently, we are no longer justified in describing
astrology as a mantic method. Astrology is in the process of becoming
a science.”(14)
This is why Compatti.com uses only reliable online techniques such as
biorhythm and astrology, evaluating detailed individual horoscopes and
not just the zodiac sun signs. Clearly, since our users have to answer
only 3 questions: date, time and place of birth, the retest reliability
is higher than any online psychological tests. Your birthday, time and
place do not change at a later retest. Since the 1960s, almost all states
in the US, and even earlier in some European countries, were recording
birth times, making accurate astrological personality assessment available
for the majority of people today. We are not opposed to psychological
tests. But, we don’t feel it is ethical deceiving singles with unreliable
self-administered tests online.
Then what is the future for online dating? Will it still keep fooling
masses of singles with promise of a relationship which they can’t
or don’t want to deliver? Will it still be losing online audiences
to even more obscure off-line speed dating or the like? Or, will they
realize that the only way to save the online business is to offer services
beyond simple dating? I believe that the future of online dating is in
its evolution towards the business of creating and nurturing the whole
relationship. Initial introduction of compatible partners can be achieved
online through reliable tests such as relationship astrology. It should
be also complemented with off-line, one-on-one consultations with psychological,
marital and astrological practitioners.
Company Name: COMPATTI.COM INC.
Website: www.compatti.com