For singles whom brave the jungles of online dating sites, there’s nothing beats a friend that is experienced two to supply advice. “Should I Photoshop out my Marilyn Monroe mole?” “What does it imply that her favorite film is ‘The Exorcist’?” “Do my smoldering eyes in this profile photo say, ‘I’m yours’ or ‘I’m in pain?’”

Now imagine you’d a couple of million buddies whom could make suggestions through the thicket using their epic stories of failure and success. That’s the concept behind OkTrends (web log.okcupid.com), a web log published by the founders of OkCupid, a totally free, online dating service that matters 7 million site site site visitors every month.

Every six months or more, the bloggers — all math that is former from Harvard — examine the gold mine of dating information gathered from their users’ online interactions (correctly scrubbed and anonymized, needless to say). They sift and sort, crunch and correlate, catching any nuggets of mating wisdom come out.

They post a written report of these findings — together with resultant tips that are dating frequently with pop music tradition sources, analytical graphs and images of half-naked teenagers and females.

“It’s our form of an advice line,” says Sam Yagan, OkCupid’s leader. “We love the fact our very own information tell us that which works on a night out together.”

Also boffins stop by to see just what they’re up to — though their views on which they find here varies a great deal.

“I’m a fan that is big” says Eli Finkel, connect teacher of social therapy at Northwestern University. “The articles are usually insightful, well-written and enjoyable.”

“These are not always statistically dependable findings,” claims Viren Swami, a therapy researcher during the University of Westminster in London and co-author of “The Psychology of bodily Attraction.” “They are interesting, nevertheless they may possibly also possibly be really deceptive and, at worst, quite cannot be entirely true.”

We invited professionals with severe qualifications when you look at the technology of mating and dating to consider in on a few choose OkTrend conclusions. Keep reading:

The advice: enquire about your potential soul-mate’s taste in Wes Craven flicks, Albanian backpacking and life from the high seas.

The thinking: The trove of information tapped because of the OkTrends bloggers originates from multiple-choice “match concerns.” A large number of concerns — handling tooth-brushing practices, politics, how to see who likes you on russiancupid without paying faith, more — are available; many in the dating website response a few of hundred.

Therefore in this instance, the bloggers pointed out that couples who came across on OkCupid after which left your website to follow their relationship consented most frequently on these three questions: “Do you want horror films?” “Have you ever traveled around a different country alone?” and “Wouldn’t it be enjoyable to chuck all of it and get survive a sailboat?”

Our researchers say: is reasonable. What you’re measuring is exactly what psychologists call “openness to experience,” or even the O Factor, claims David McCord, a psychologist that is clinical mind associated with the therapy division at Western Carolina University. “People whom seek stimulation and adventure, that are interested and available to brand brand new and different experiences — they’d be less likely to want to establish and easily keep a relationship with extremely old-fashioned, conservative, unimaginative, risk-avoidant people.”

But right right right here’s the sc sc sc rub: If you’re “high O” and drawn to likewise wild-and-crazy kinds but are looking for a effective long-lasting relationship, perhaps you are seeking trouble. “Sensation-seeking and ‘openness to experience’ anticipate infidelity,” claims David M. Buss, therapy teacher in the University of Texas at Austin and composer of “The development of want: Strategies of Human Mating.”