13 Feb Science Can Help You With Your On-line Dating
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Professor Khalid Khan
Women’s Health Research Unit
Multi-disciplinary Evidence Synthesis Hub
The Blizard Institute
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Prof. Khan: My co-author talked me into helping him with his online dating and so we embarked on this project. We were fascinated to see if there was any scientific evidence which could help people in their online pursuit of love – and to our surprise there was lots of attraction and persuasion research. There were 86 published studies on attraction and persuasion which met our criteria, and these covered literature in psychology, sociology, and computer behavioural and neurocognitive sciences. Their design features included randomisation in 28 studies, cohort follow-up in 13 studies, cross-sectional evaluation in 37 studies, qualitative analysis in 5 studies and systematic review in 3 studies. We found that Success in converting initial online contact to a first date is not a complex formula. It relates to simple factors such as a fluent headline, truthfulness of profile, and reciprocity in communication. Just like when you meet someone in real life, simple actions such as showing interest in the other person (commenting on something in their profile rather than just talking about yourself) goes a long way.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Prof. Khan: The scientific basis of effective online data will hopefully improve success in matching people together. Those who have not been finding success with their online dating profile should go through these findings and see if they can use any of the advice to improve the image they’re portraying of themselves online, whilst of course taking the advice about remaining truthful, humorous and playful.
Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Prof. Khan: Future research should focus on long term outcomes beyond converting online contact into the first date.
Citation:
Khalid S Khan, Sameer Chaudhry. An evidence-based approach to an ancient pursuit: systematic review on converting online contact into a first date. Evid Based Med, 12 February 2015 DOI: 10.1136/ebmed-2014-110101
[wysija_form id=”1″]
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:, & Professor Khalid Khan (2015). Science Can Help You With Your On-line Dating MedicalResearch.com
Last Updated on February 13, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD