Exploring matchmakers : the strategies and accuracy of liking predictions

Abstract

Mate selection preferences are well-documented in extensive research and are found to differ between genders: Men put more weight on physical attractiveness, whereas women put more emphasis on social status in general (Buss, 1989; Kenrick & Keefe, 1992; Fletcher et al., 2014; Li et al., 2013). Many of the mate preference studies focused on what qualities are of concern to one in choosing his own romantic partner. Despite the fact that matchmaking services are still popular for singles to find love in contemporary society, little is known about how matchmakers pair their clients. Therefore, the current study was designed to stimulate matchmaking services and examined how a third person chooses potential romantic partners for others with limited information provided in actors’ dating profiles. Specifically, each participant was asked to study a total of 18 dating profiles, which include information on 14 attributes, in three match-set and then pair the targets in nine heterosexual pair for dating. The participants were then required to indicate their matchmaking strategies by ranking the 14 attributes from the most important to the least important when they determined the love matches. The principal component analysis discovered four sets of determinants that matchmakers reported using in predicting likings between persons: Socioeconomic Status, Personality, Appearance, and Religion. A tendency for sex differentiation was found among all the four principal components when the matchmakers determined love matches, albeit insignificant. Nevertheless, these four principal components were not able to well-predict the accuracy of the matches (i.e., true couples).