单项选择题
For a fee, many sites will collect data about you, crunch the numbers and match you with someone who, as eHarmony puts it, has been "prescreened for deep compatibility with you across 29 dimensions. " Yet how scientific are the "matching algorithms" of online-dating sites
It is hard to say, since the sites have not disclosed their algorithms. But the past 80 years of scientific research about what makes people romantically compatible suggest that such sites are unlikely to do what they claim to do.
One major problem is that these sites fail to collect a lot of crucial information. Because they gather data from singles who have never met, the sites have no way of knowing how two people will interact once they have been matched. Yet our review of the literature reveals that aspects of relationships that emerge only after two people match and get to know each other—things like communication patterns, problem- solving tendencies and sexual compatibility—are crucial to predict the success or failure of relationships. For example, study and study have shown that couples discuss and attempt to resolve disagreements predict their future satisfaction and whether or not the relationship is likely to dissolve.
Likewise, dating sites don’t take into account the environment surrounding the relationship: factors like job loss, financial strain, infertility and illness. But research indicates that when couples encounter such stresses or unexpected demands on their energy, their satisfaction with their relationship declines and their risk for breaking up increases.
Another major problem with the algorithms of dating sites is that the information they do collect— about individual characteristics-accounts for only a tiny slice of what makes two people suited for a long- time relationship. Certainly, some characteristics predict relationship well-being. For example, decades of research confirms that people tend to have troubled romantic relationship if they are emotionally volatile, were mistreated as children or abuse drugs or alcohol. Eliminating people from the dating pool who are likely to have relationship problems, as some sites may do by declining customers based on their answers to questions about things like emotional stability, can be a useful service (as long as you’re one of the lucky singles who make the cut).
Of course, dating sites promise much more than access to a somewhat improved pool of potential mates; they promise to identify specific pairs of strangers who are likely to mesh well together in a romantic relationship. In particular, almost all of the sites claim that partners who are more similar to each other in certain ways will experience greater relationship satisfaction and stability relative to partners who are less similar. These sites tend to emphasize similarity on psychological variables like personality and attitudes. The problem with this approach is that such forms of similarity between two partners generally don’t predict the success of their relationship. A 2010 study of more than 23,000 married couples showed that similarity on the major dimensions of personality accounted for a mere 0.5% of how satisfied spouses were with their marriages—leaving the other 99.5% to other factors.
None of this suggests that online dating is any worse a method of meeting potential romantic partners than meeting in a bar or on the subway. But it’s no better either.
A. Neutral.
B. Negative.
C. Doubtful.
D. Positive.