Marketing Research Seminar Series

Ort: Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien TC.5.18 am 19. Oktober 2017 Startet um 13:00 Endet um 15:00

Veranstalter Department Department für Marketing

Talk by Fred Feinberg, University of Michigan (US), "Detecting Cupid’s Vector: Universals and Deal‐Breakers in Mate Choice via Online Dating Activity Data"

The „Research Seminar Series“ held by the WU’s Marketing Department helps to connect our Faculty with international scholars from the Marketing field. They are invited to present their latest research and discuss the current trends and developments in all major areas of marketing. The seminar is open to all WU faculties and students.

Abstract: Philosophers dating back to antiquity have struggled to figure out what people are looking for in a potential mate. Their contemporary counterparts, sociologists and marketers, have until recently had to rely on two sorts of data: (1) what people say they want; and (2) observations of relationships at various stages. Both have well-documented shortcomings but, with the advent of online dating, researchers can avail of a massive trove of 'behavioral' data -- what people actually DO -- regarding their ongoing searches for suitable mates.

Here, we leverage modern choice modeling techniques to a large corpus of data involving both whom web site users "browse", and whom they then take the more effortful (and perhaps rejection-inducing) step of "writing" to. We use these data in two ways. First, to identify possible "deal breakers": attributes of potential mates so unwelcome that no other combination of characteristics can overcome. And second, to potentially identify "universals": desirable characteristics that seem to run across otherwise heterogeneous preferences. The model allows for a more nuanced account of mate selection strategies than has been possible in the past.



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