OBSERVATIONS/RESULTS: Quantify the effects of the experiment. It only took them a few seconds to smash the snowy paperweight of my romantic future. "Unable to match you at this time." They had to be kidding. It's New York City, a straight-male dater's paradise, the most famous place in America to land girls you wouldn't have a shot at anywhere else, where fabulous women put up with dirtbags and freeloaders and still get cheated on. No one for me? But I'm not homeless! I'm not a convicted felon! I can be monogamous, I promise! No dice. "Our matching model could not accurately predict with whom you would be best matched." Yeah, when you say best matched, no shit, you're a computer, but how about someone who might just like my cardigan collection? Apparently this happens to one person out of five, and despite appearances, they weren't exactly telling me that there was no one out there for me (among the million-plus women in Manhattan — ouch!). No, the problem was that I didn't "fall within certain defined profiles." And instead of throwing the rejects into a free-for-all dating pool of freaks (maybe like Alaska), they set you loose to finish your date with the bottle.
CONCLUSION: Summarize your findings. I still had questions, so I got their Senior Research Scientist on the horn. Gian Gonzaga, Ph.D. told me that people come up unmatchable for four reasons: they're under eighteen, they're married, they're trying to "game the system" (i.e. not being serious about the process — their code for bootycallin'?), or they're people who have "a complex, nuanced view of themselves." (As an unspoken fifth, eHarmony also famously doesn't match gay people — thus their new spin-off site, CompatiblePartners.net, which I would have called eSingShowtunesInHarmony.com.) I'm over eighteen and never married, so in this case, the problem was me — or at least my sense of myself. "One of the downsides of the system," Gian told me, is that if you answer questions in "inconsistent ways" it "blows the system up. It's not an implication of how worthy you are of a relationship. It's actually saying that you are a unique person. And finding someone is something that our system can't handle, but it doesn't mean that there's not someone out there." "Uniquely self-delusional?" I asked him. "No, unique in the sense that you are a rare bird in the world... a person with a complex view of yourself." "Wow," I said. "That sounds pretty good." eHarmony wasn't going to get me married, but they at least gave me a new headline for my ad on Adult Friend Finder. Read more I Did It For Science here. n° 45 CommentsLOL commented on 06/09 LS commented on 06/09 dcf commented on 06/09 SKO commented on 06/09 sgh commented on 06/09 JH commented on 06/09 sb commented on 06/09 JS commented on 06/09 JH commented on 06/09 bam commented on 06/09 nal commented on 06/09 SJ commented on 06/09 aj commented on 06/09 KG commented on 06/10 EC commented on 06/10 EC commented on 06/10 EB commented on 06/10 MS commented on 06/10 KT commented on 06/10 cb commented on 06/10 rp commented on 06/10 kl commented on 06/10 AR commented on 06/10 PK commented on 06/11 MT commented on 06/11 rl commented on 06/12 BE commented on 06/12 aw commented on 06/12 TFT commented on 06/12 TS commented on 06/12 CJM commented on 06/13 NT commented on 06/14 NT commented on 06/14 agb commented on 06/14 REM commented on 06/15 DS commented on 06/15 bamf commented on 06/15 DW commented on 06/16 MSH commented on 06/16 MSH commented on 06/16 NM commented on 06/17 luv commented on 06/18 Cl commented on 06/19 PCD commented on 06/22
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