How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating • Hacker News Board

Re: How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating

#31

Post by camccann » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 12:41 AM UTC

codexon wrote: post #12

They left out the axis on the "message reply rate" diagram as a teaser for the next blog post. I just copy and pasted the image onto the axis. It shows that white and native American males are more likely to get responses than the other races. http://www.codexon.com/temp/mrr.png And I wrote a small analysis here if you can be bothered to take a look. http://www.codexon.com/posts/okcupid-dating-statistics-shows...

Assuming they didn't deliberately shuffle the ordering just to confound people like you.

Your results look depressingly plausible, though, so I'm guessing not.

Re: How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating

#32

Post by narag » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 12:47 AM UTC

shalmanese wrote: post #6

One possible explanation for the low Hindu-Hindu match is that there are many websites dedicated to specifically Hindu dating which means that the Hindus using OkCupid are those who are specifically not looking for a Hindu date. For other religions, such sites aren't nearly as prevalent.

... which means that the Hindus using OkCupid are those who are specifically not looking for a Hindu date.

Or maybe they are specifically looking for a non-Hindu date. I mean that they might be looking for a uncompromising relation, maybe easier with a person with different roots.

Re: How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating

#33

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 12:48 AM UTC

pyre wrote: post #30

jacquesm wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to make this kind of generalizing statement about large groups of people I simply think that you have the responsibility to do it properly, so with control groups and so on, or not at all, otherwise the results are totally meaningless. The way it is presented right now is as if simply the size of OkCupid and their data gathering methods give them the license to make this kind of claim. It's 'interesti…

> It's 'interesting' but not 'rigorous'. Of course it's not rigorous. To some degree people interacting with OKCupid's site are a self-selecting bunch. You really need to take this at face value. This is just a blog post showing some number crunching on their site. There are no sensationalist headings like "Muslim Males the Most Hated Group of People." Keep in mind that this is also not a scientific journal, not peer…

It's way past my bedtime here, and judging by the moderation I'm not able to make my point, which is simply this:

If you are going to be making sweeping statements about people, even including race and religion then you really should do your homework, or if you're doing it out of curiosity, keep the results to yourself. By presenting the data in a format that looks as though very hard work went in to its creation and by hammering home the reliability of that data you are creating the illusion of something that is scientifically solid when in fact it isn't.

Re: How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating

#34

Post by narag » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 12:54 AM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #23

natrius wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right. It's infotainment. So? Are you incapable of taking anything at face value? They aren't making claims about how the world works; they're making claims about how people interact on their site . If that's not interesting to you, flag it and move on.

The flaw here is that how people interact on their site has very little bearing on how those same people will interact in real life. The plural of data isn't evidence, even for large amounts of data. Sure you can do interesting statistical analysis, but the real action is after two people have found each other, and that's where the huge flaw is in all this analysis, the statements are about interactions in real life,…

The flaw here is that how people interact on their site has very little bearing on how those same people will interact in real life.

I still find interesting to know how they interact online.

Re: How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating

#35

Post by alextp » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 1:00 AM UTC

This is hilariously interesting. Data mining can always bring good insights if you have good data.

I wonder, though, (a) if most people search for similar people or for different people, (b) how well does the matching percentage really reflect a "liking probability" (ie, there is always some wishful thinking when designing date profiles, and some of that might be counter-productive, ruling out good matches).

Re: How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating

#36

Post by elai » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 1:18 AM UTC

It seems like recently immigrated groups who are not established and similar disadvantaged groups of people do worse than the established.

Re: How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating

#37

Post by potatolicious » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 2:00 AM UTC

camccann wrote: post #31

codexon wrote: post #12

They left out the axis on the "message reply rate" diagram as a teaser for the next blog post. I just copy and pasted the image onto the axis. It shows that white and native American males are more likely to get responses than the other races. http://www.codexon.com/temp/mrr.png And I wrote a small analysis here if you can be bothered to take a look. http://www.codexon.com/posts/okcupid-dating-statistics-shows...

Assuming they didn't deliberately shuffle the ordering just to confound people like you. Your results look depressingly plausible, though, so I'm guessing not.

As a single male Asian I am praying that the first row isn't me. But odds are it is anyway :( It certainly conforms with stereotypes about Asian girls...

Re: How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating

#38

Post by potatolicious » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 2:05 AM UTC

pyre wrote: post #28

hughprime wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The differences on the race graph are so small as to be insignificant.

Keep in mind that the 'Match %' is based on OKCupid.com's algorithms that number crunch against quiz answers that the users answer. This has nothing to do with 'success rate' of users on the site hooking up with other users.

Right, so compare that with the message reply rate chart at the bottom of the article. Assuming the axes haven't changed from other charts on the page (which IMHO is a pretty good assumption)...

It suggests that certain races have good matches with other races, but horrible reply rates. Reply rate may be the best metric okcupid has as to "success rate". It also suggests strong racial biases on the part of its users.

Re: How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating

#39

Post by codexon » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 2:08 AM UTC

camccann wrote: post #31

codexon wrote: post #12

They left out the axis on the "message reply rate" diagram as a teaser for the next blog post. I just copy and pasted the image onto the axis. It shows that white and native American males are more likely to get responses than the other races. http://www.codexon.com/temp/mrr.png And I wrote a small analysis here if you can be bothered to take a look. http://www.codexon.com/posts/okcupid-dating-statistics-shows...

Assuming they didn't deliberately shuffle the ordering just to confound people like you. Your results look depressingly plausible, though, so I'm guessing not.

I addressed those concerns in a comment on my website.

Re: How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating

#40

Post by codexon » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 2:10 AM UTC

potatolicious wrote: post #38

pyre wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that the 'Match %' is based on OKCupid.com's algorithms that number crunch against quiz answers that the users answer. This has nothing to do with 'success rate' of users on the site hooking up with other users.

Right, so compare that with the message reply rate chart at the bottom of the article. Assuming the axes haven't changed from other charts on the page (which IMHO is a pretty good assumption)... It suggests that certain races have good matches with other races, but horrible reply rates . Reply rate may be the best metric okcupid has as to "success rate". It also suggests strong racial biases on the part of its users.

To elaborate more on your point:

Many people claim they aren't racist when they refuse to date other races. They always say they haven't found the right guy/girl.

What I've found from personal experience, is that the bar is set much higher for those minority races.