Abstract
We study partner preferences for education and attractiveness by conducting a field experiment in a large online dating market. Fictitious profiles with manipulated levels of education and photo attractiveness send random invitations for a serious relationship to real online daters. We find that men and women prefer attractive over unattractive profiles, regardless of own attractiveness. We also find that high-educated men prefer low-educated over high-educated profiles as much as high-educated women prefer high-educated over low-educated profiles. With preferences similar for attractiveness but opposite for education, two groups are more likely to stay single: unattractive, low-educated men and unattractive, high-educated women.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 104372 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-16 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Journal of Public Economics |
| Volume | 196 |
| Early online date | 2 Mar 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Ingvild Alm?s, Dan Olof Rooth, and Adriaan Soetevent, and seminar and conference participants in Copenhagen, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Lofoten, Milan, and Nuremberg for their comments and suggestions. We also thank Tim van der Weert for his outstanding research assistance. Egebark acknowledges financial support from Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius stiftelse. Ekstr?m acknowledges support from the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence Scheme, FAIR project No 262675. This research has been realized without cooperation with the online dating platform. The research project has been approved by the ethical review board at the Amsterdam School of Economics. The document with the authorized approval is made available to this journal.
Funding Information:
We thank Ingvild Almås, Dan Olof Rooth, and Adriaan Soetevent, and seminar and conference participants in Copenhagen, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Lofoten, Milan, and Nuremberg for their comments and suggestions. We also thank Tim van der Weert for his outstanding research assistance. Egebark acknowledges financial support from Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius stiftelse. Ekström acknowledges support from the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence Scheme, FAIR project No 262675. This research has been realized without cooperation with the online dating platform. The research project has been approved by the ethical review board at the Amsterdam School of Economics. The document with the authorized approval is made available to this journal.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Funding
We thank Ingvild Almås, Dan Olof Rooth, and Adriaan Soetevent, and seminar and conference participants in Copenhagen, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Lofoten, Milan, and Nuremberg for their comments and suggestions. We also thank Tim van der Weert for his outstanding research assistance. Egebark acknowledges financial support from Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius stiftelse. Ekström acknowledges support from the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence Scheme, FAIR project No 262675. This research has been realized without cooperation with the online dating platform. The research project has been approved by the ethical review board at the Amsterdam School of Economics. The document with the authorized approval is made available to this journal. We thank Ingvild Almås, Dan Olof Rooth, and Adriaan Soetevent, and seminar and conference participants in Copenhagen, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Lofoten, Milan, and Nuremberg for their comments and suggestions. We also thank Tim van der Weert for his outstanding research assistance. Egebark acknowledges financial support from Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius stiftelse. Ekström acknowledges support from the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence Scheme, FAIR project No 262675. This research has been realized without cooperation with the online dating platform. The research project has been approved by the ethical review board at the Amsterdam School of Economics. The document with the authorized approval is made available to this journal.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| FAIR | 262675 |
| Ingvild Almås, Dan Olof Rooth | |
| Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius stiftelse | |
| Norges forskningsråd |
Keywords
- Beauty
- Education
- Field study
- Online dating
- Partner matches
- Partner preferences
- Randomized experiment
