Speed Dating and Gender Differences, Research Paper Example

The study being replicated seeks to analyze dating patterns of males and females, with particular emphasis on the gender differences represented by the dating preferences exhibited through the mate selections made by the participants. The research I have conducted seeks to examine these same paradigms in relationships and mate selection through scrutinizing the individual preferences of each gender rather than just looking at the final match selections. In addition, I would also like to investigate how much emphasis both genders place on factors like physical appearance, financial background and stability, familial relationships, and ambition. The study for replication indicates the likelihood of certain behaviors based on the social structure theory and this research will seek to determine if these assertions are mimicked in our study. These details can provide insight into the attributes males and females most value when selecting a mate and what trends exist within these processes for both sexes. This research also seeks to make correlations between individual socialization patterns and mate selection preferences. The data collected consists of questionnaires filled out by the speed dating participants before, during, and after the event.

The research design is based on the current Speed Dating phenomenon in which participants engage in four-minute conversations to determine whether or not they are interested in each other. If both people are interested, the facilitator provides each participant with the other’s contact information. The design used for the research created a similar setting to the one provided by the companies in this market, with the primary benefit to this design being that it provides experimental control while still allowing the unimpeded collection of data regarding the decisions made in a setting very similar to real world scenarios. To begin the speed dating process, each participant was given a clipboard with a covered scorecard (see Appendix A) so responses remained confidential, a pen, and a nametag which had only their ID number was written and the scorecard was divided into columns in which participants indicated the ID number of each person they met and circle “yes” or “no” under the ID number to indicate whether they would like to see the other person again. The scorecard also contained a listing of the six attributes that each participant had to rate their partner, which was: Ambitious, Attractive, Fun, Intelligent, Shared Interests, and Sincere. The primary interest of the research was to determine how the perception of each of these attributes in a potential mate affected the decision of males and females.

The initial questionnaire (pre-event survey) is administered as the participants sign up for the event and establishes basic demographical details about each participant, including their ethnic preferences in a mate, and other basic details. This also includes questions about each individual’s goals for participating in the event, their expectations, and their current socialization habits, including how frequently they date or engage in activities that hold the potential for them to meet a mate and what they think the opposite sex looks for in a potential mate. The pre-event survey also details each participant’s educational background and the ZIP code where they grew up, which is mentioned during the conversation period and is indicated as a selective factor amongst females. Self-ratings are also gathered during the pre-event survey and this data is used to establish dummy variables, like whether the pair has the same field of study, whether they are from the same part of the world, and whether they are of the same race, which is later used for the statistical analysis.

The secondary questionnaire is administered during the speed dating event after the participants have encountered a predetermined number of potential mates and asks questions regarding their current impressions of the situation and encourages them to rate their encounters on their scorecard that has an individual ID number on it so the assessors of the event can later match the participants with the mates they have indicated caught their interest. This section also asks each participant to rate themselves and to assess what they are looking for in a mate. The last questionnaire was administered the day after the event and asked the participants questions about their satisfaction level with the potential mates they encountered and what factors contributed to their selection of the individuals they expressed an interest in.

When collecting data, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, or qualitative data analysis and interpretation can be implemented during compilation. These methods are utilized to ease the process of coding, categorizing, and sorting the large amounts of data gathered in the field or during the course of a research investigation that can result from studies. The data is carefully compiled utilizing these techniques to detect any patterns that may become apparent through careful data analysis. The analyses of the results are detailed in Appendix A and contain the tabulated results of the questionnaires administered to the participants as well as the questions asked of them in the questionnaires and the codes used to tabulate the results gathered. The results gathered from the experiment correlated with many of the determinations resulting in the study emulated.

The primary assumption throughout the research is that the participants are all behaving in a straight-forward manner, meaning they accept partners they like and reject those that are not appealing to them. This allows the data to be quantified as follows: the Yes/No decision of subject _I with respect to a partner _J is the variable of interest, denoted by the expression Decision_IJ. The raings collected following each round are used to ascertain the emphasis the participants placed on each meeting and the influence of each individual’s attributes on the demand for particular partners is also taken into consideration. This allows for determinations to be made regarding whether each sex is prone to aversions to mates considered superior to them on gender stereotypical attributes, which is suggested by the social structure theory. The research additionally seeks to delineate whether the differences are most evident in mate selections for long-term relationships versus short term relationships, which seems to be a noticeable pattern for women, as they tend to place greater emphasis on physical attractiveness when selecting mates for short-term relationships and not so for long-term relationships.

The study results also indicated that females tend to place greater emphasis on the intelligence of their partner as well as their race while males are more likely to base their decision on the physical attributes of their partner. Furthermore, males tend to disregard their women’s intelligence or ambition if it surpassed their own while females were more inclined to place import on their potential partner’s earning potential, ambition, and social status. However, the interaction term for ambition is insignificant for females. The analysis of the responses also indicated that women have a definitive preference for men from affluent backgrounds and female selectivity is strongly increasing in group size, while male selectivity is invariant to group size. This means that in larger sessions, male selectivity is unchanged, while females become significantly more selective, tending to select slightly more than one third of their partners as opposed to half in smaller groups.

In addition, women demonstrate a strong preference for partners of their own race, while men do not and both men and women are more likely to accept a partner who grew up in a less densely populated area. The details recorded correlated with much of the research compiled relative to this subject as well as the study chosen for replication. The cohesiveness of the data retrieved in the replicated study makes the determinations recorded believable and supports the appropriateness of the econometric methods used to analyze the data. Information collected from the study was found to support the recorded analyses and showed similar patterns of action and response as the documented speed dating exercise. The statistical results gathered from the examination of the speed dating results in the replication exercise produces similar trends to the observed in the original research.

Understanding the driving forces behind what motivates people to choose the mates they select may help reduce the overwhelming number of bad or destructive relationships people experience. Concerns with the research or areas for further investigation include gender differentials attributed to emphasis on aspects that include the underlying social issues that are driving these observed behaviors. Further examination into whether women have a stronger need than men to see themselves as valuing attributes such as intelligence and why women are significantly more likely to say Yes in their first meeting, both in the small and in the large groups are phenomenon that appeared in the original study and the replication study and warrant more analysis to determine their place within the results.

 

 

Reference

Fisman, R., Iyengar, S.S., Kamenica, E., & Simonson, I. (2006, May). Gender differences in mate selection: Evidence from a speed dating experiment. President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 673-697.

 

 

 

Appendix A

Speed Dating Data Key

iid: unique subject number, group (wave id gender)

 

id: subject number within wave

 

gender: Female=0

Male=1

 

idg: subject number within gender, group(id gender)

 

condtn:

1=limited choice

2=extensive choice

wave:

Wave #	Date	Preference Scale	Variations	# Males	# Females
1	October 16th ‘02	100 pt alloc.		10	10
2	October 23rd ‘02	100 pt alloc.		16	19
3	November 12th ‘02	100 pt alloc.		10	9
4	November 12th ‘02	100 pt alloc.		18	18
5	November 20th, ‘02	100 pt alloc.	undergrads	10	10
6	March 26th ‘03	1-10 scale		5	5
7	March 26th ‘03	1-10 scale		16	16
8	April 2nd ‘03	1-10 scale		10	10
9	April 2nd ‘03	1-10 scale		20	20
10	September 24th ‘03	100 pt alloc.		9	9
11	September 24th ‘03	100 pt alloc.		21	21
12	October 7th ‘03	100 pt alloc.	Budget: only allowed to say yes to 50% of the people that met	14	15
13	October 8th ‘03	100 pt alloc.	Different M.C.	9	10
14	October 8th ‘03	100 pt alloc.	Different M.C.	18	20
15	February 24th ‘04	100 pt alloc.		19	18
16	February 25th ‘04	100 pt alloc.		8	6
17	February 25th ‘04	100 pt alloc.		14	10
18	April 6th ‘04	100 pt alloc.	brought a magazine	6	6
19	April 6th ‘04	100 pt alloc.	brought a book	15	16
20	April 7th ‘04	100 pt alloc.	brought a book	8	6
21	April 7th ‘04	100 pt alloc.	brought a magazine	22	22

 

 

round: number of people that met in wave

 

position: station number where met partner

 

positin1: station number where started

 

order: the number of date that night when met partner

 

partner: partner’s id number the night of event

 

pid: partner’s iid number

 

match 1=yes, 0=no

 

int_corr: correlation between participant’s and partner’s ratings of interests in Time 1

 

samerace: participant and the partner were the same race. 1= yes, 0=no

 

age_o: age of partner

 

race_o: race of partner

 

pf_o_att: partner’s stated preference at Time 1 (attr1_1) for all 6 attributes

 

dec_o: decision of partner the night of event

 

attr_o: rating by partner the night of the event, for all 6 attributes

 

 

signup/Time1:

[Survey filled out by students that are interested in participating in order to register for the event.]

age:

 

field: field of study

 

field_cd: field coded

1= Law

2= Math

3= Social Science, Psychologist

4= Medical Science, Pharmaceuticals, and Bio Tech

5= Engineering

6= English/Creative Writing/ Journalism

7= History/Religion/Philosophy

8= Business/Econ/Finance

9= Education, Academia

10= Biological Sciences/Chemistry/Physics

11= Social Work

12= Undergrad/undecided

13=Political Science/International Affairs

14=Film

15=Fine Arts/Arts Administration

16=Languages

17=Architecture

18=Other

 

undergrd: school attended for undergraduate degree

 

mn_sat: Median SAT score for the undergraduate institution where attended. Taken from Barron’s 25^th Edition college profile book. Proxy for intelligence.

 

tuition: Tuition listed for each response to undergrad in Barron’s 25^th Edition college profile book.

 

race:

Black/African American=1

European/Caucasian-American=2

Latino/Hispanic American=3

Asian/Pacific Islander/Asian-American=4

Native American=5

Other=6

 

imprace:

How important is it to you (on a scale of 1-10) that a person you date be of the same racial/ethnic background?

 

imprelig:

How important is it to you (on a scale of 1-10) that a person you date be of the same religious background?

 

from:

Where are you from originally (before coming to Columbia)?

 

zipcode:

What was the zip code of the area where you grew up?

 

income:

Median household income based on zipcode using the Census Bureau website:

http://venus.census.gov/cdrom/lookup/CMD=LIST/DB=C90STF3B/LEV=ZIP

When there is no income it means that they are either from abroad or did not enter their zip code.

 

goal:

What is your primary goal in participating in this event?

Seemed like a fun night out=1

To meet new people=2

To get a date=3

Looking for a serious relationship=4

To say I did it=5

Other=6

 

date:

In general, how frequently do you go on dates?

Several times a week=1

Twice a week=2

Once a week=3

Twice a month=4

Once a month=5

Several times a year=6

Almost never=7

 

go out:

How often do you go out (not necessarily on dates)?

Several times a week=1

Twice a week=2

Once a week=3

Twice a month=4

Once a month=5

Several times a year=6

Almost never=7

 

career:

What is your intended career?

 

career_c: career coded

1= Lawyer

2= Academic/Research

3= Psychologist

4= Doctor/Medicine

5=Engineer

6= Creative Arts/Entertainment

7= Banking/Consulting/Finance/Marketing/Business/CEO/Entrepreneur/Admin

8= Real Estate

9= International/Humanitarian Affairs

10= Undecided

11=Social Work

12=Speech Pathology

13=Politics

14=Pro sports/Athletics

15=Other

16=Journalism

17=Architecture

 

 

1. How interested are you in the following activities, on a scale of 1-10?

sports: Playing sports/ athletics

tvsports: Watching sports

excersice: Body building/exercising

dining: Dining out

museums: Museums/galleries

art: Art

hiking: Hiking/camping

gaming: Gaming

clubbing: Dancing/clubbing

reading: Reading

tv: Watching TV

theater: Theater

movies: Movies

concerts: Going to concerts

music: Music

shopping: Shopping

yoga: Yoga/meditation

 

exphappy:

Overall, on a scale of 1-10, how happy do you expect to be with the people you meet

during the speed-dating event?

 

expnum:

Out of the 20 people you will meet, how many do you expect will be interested in dating you?

 

We want to know what you look for in the opposite sex.

Waves 6-9: Please rate the importance of the following attributes in a potential date on a scale of 1-10 (1=not at all important, 10=extremely important):

Waves 1-5, 10-21: You have 100 points to distribute among the following attributes — give more points to those attributes that are more important in a potential date, and fewer points to those attributes that are less important in a potential date. Total points must equal 100.

attr1_1

Attractive

sinc1_1

Sincere

intel1_1

Intelligent

fun1_1

Fun

amb1_1

Ambitious

shar1_1

Has shared interests/hobbies

 

Now we want to know what you think MOST of your fellow men/women look for in the opposite sex.

Waves 6-9: Please rate the importance of the following attributes on a scale of 1-10 (1=not at all important, 10=extremely important):

Waves 10-21 : You have 100 points to distribute among the following attributes — give more points to those attributes that you think your fellow men/women find more important in a potential date and fewer points to those attributes that they find less important in a potential date. Total points must equal 100.

 

attr4_1

Attractive

sinc4_1

Sincere

intel4_1

Intelligent

fun4_1

Fun

amb4_1

Ambitious

shar4_1

Shared Interests/Hobbies

 

 

 

What do you think the opposite sex looks for in a date?

Waves 6-9: Please rate the importance of the following attributes on a scale of 1-10 (1=not at all important, 10=extremely important):

Waves 1-5 and 10-21: Please distribute 100 points among the following attributes — give more points to those attributes that you think are more important to members of the opposite sex when they are deciding whether to date someone. Total points must equal 100.

 

attr2_1

Attractive

sinc2_1

Sincere

int2_1

Intelligent

fun2_1

Fun

amb2_1

Ambitious

shar2_1

Has shared interests/hobbies

 

How do you think you measure up?

Please rate your opinion of your own attributes, on a scale of 1-10 (be honest!):

attr3_1

Attractive

sinc3_1

Sincere

int3_1

Intelligent

fun3_1

Fun

amb3_1

Ambitious

 

And finally, how do you think others perceive you?

Please rate yourself how you think others would rate you on each of the following attributes, on a scale of 1-10 (1=awful, 10=great)

attr5_1

Attractive

sinc5_1

Sincere

int5_1

Intelligent

fun5_1

Fun

amb5_1

Ambitious

Scorecard:

[Filled out by subjects after each “date” during the event.]

 

SCORECARD

YOUR ID NUMBER:

Circle “Yes” or “No” below the ID number of each person you meet to indicate whether or not you would like to see him or her again. Rate their attributes on a scale of 1-10: (1=awful, 10=great). If you haven’t formed an opinion based on your conversation, fill in N/A, but please fill in all boxes. This will be TOTALLY confidential and will NOT be shared with anyone. Then, answer the remaining questions for each person you meet.

ID #:	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
dec
Decision	1=yes 0=no	Y n	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no
Attributes (1=awful, 10=great)
Attractive	attr
Sincere	sinc
Intelligent	intel
Fun	fun
Ambitious	amb
Shared Interests/Hobbies	shar
Overall, how much do you like this person? (1=don’t like at all, 10=like a lot)	like
How probable do you think it is that this person will say ‘yes’ for you? (1=not probable, 10=extremely probable)	prob
Have you met this person before?	met 1=yes 2=no		yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no

 

 

 

ID #:	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Decision	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no
Attributes (1=awful, 10=great)
Attractive
Sincere
Intelligent
Fun
Ambitious
Shared Interests/Hobbies
Overall, how much do you like this person? (1=don’t like at all, 10=like a lot)
How probable do you think it is that this person will say ‘yes’ for you? (1=not probable, 10=extremely probable)
Have you met this person before?	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no	yes no

 

 

 

match_es:

How many matches do you estimate you will get (a match occurs when you and your partner both check “Yes” next to decision)?:

 

 

Half way through meeting all potential dates during the night of the event on their scorecard:

 

Hold up! Now that you are half way through your Speed Dates, we have a few questions for you…

 

We want to know what you look for in the opposite sex.

Please rate the importance of the following attributes in a potential date on a scale of 1-10: (1=not at all important, 10=extremely important).

attr1_s

Attractive______

sinc1_s

Sincere ______

intel1_s

Intelligent _______

fun1_s

Fun _______

amb1_s

Ambitious ________

shar1_s

Shared Interests/Hobbies __________

 

Please rate your opinion of your own attributes, on a scale of 1-10 (1=awful, 10=great) –Be honest!

attr3_s

Attractive______

sinc3_s

Sincere ______

intel3_s

Intelligent _______

fun3_s

Fun _______

amb3_s

Ambitious ________

 

 

 

followup/Time2:

[Survey is filled out the day after participating in the event. Subjects must have submitted this in order to be sent their matches.]

satis_2:

Overall, how satisfied were you with the people you met? (1=not at all satisfied, 10=extremely satisfied)

 

length:

Four minutes is:

Too little=1

Too much=2

Just Right=3

 

numdat_2:

The number of Speed “Dates” you had was:

Too few=1

Too many=2

Just right=3

 

Now, think back to your yes/no decisions during the Speed Dating event. Try to distribute the 100 points among these six attributes in the way that best reflects the actual importance of these attributes in your decisions. Give more points to those attributes that were more important in your decisions, and fewer points to those attributes that were less important in your decisions. Total points must equal 100.

attr7_2

Attractive

sinc7_2

Sincere

intel7_2

Intelligent

fun7_2

Fun

amb7_2

Ambitious

shar7_2

Has shared interests/hobbies

 

We want to know what you look for in the opposite sex.

Waves 1-5 and 10-21: You have 100 points to distribute among the following attributes — give more points to those attributes that are more important in a potential date, and fewer points to those attributes that are less important in a potential date. Total points must equal 100.

Waves 6-9: Please rate the importance of the following attributes in a potential date on a scale of 1-10 (1=not at all important, 10=extremely important):

attr1_2

Attractive

sinc1_2

Sincere

intel1_2

Intelligent

fun1_2

Fun

amb1_2

Ambitious

shar1_2

Has shared interests/hobbies

 

What do you think MOST of your fellow men/women look for in the opposite sex?

You have 100 points to distribute among the following attributes — give more points to those attributes that you think your fellow men/women find more important in a potential date, and fewer points to those attributes that they find less important in a potential date.

Total points must equal 100.

attr4_2

Attractive

sinc4_2

Sincere

intel4_2

Intelligent

fun4_2

Fun

amb4_2

Ambitious

shar4_2

Shared Interests/Hobbies

 

What do you think the opposite sex looks for in a date?

Please distribute 100 points among the following attributes — give more points to those attributes that you think are more important to members of the opposite sex when they are deciding whether to date someone. Total points must equal 100.

attr2_2

Attractive

sinc2_2

Sincere

intel2_2

Intelligent

fun2_2

Fun

amb2_2

Ambitious

shar2_2

Has shared interests/hobbies

 

How do you think you measure up?

Please rate your opinion of your own attributes, on a scale of 1-10 (1= awful and 10=great). Be honest!

attr3_2

Attractive

sinc3_2

Sincere

int3_2

Intelligent

fun3_2

Fun

amb3_2

Ambitious

 

And finally, how do you think others perceive you?

Please rate yourself how you think others would rate you on each of the following attributes, on a scale of 1-10 (1=awful, 10=great)

attr5_2

Attractive

sinc5_2

Sincere

int5_2

Intelligent

fun5_2

Fun

amb5_2

Ambitious

 

 

 

followup2/ Time3:

[Subjects filled out 3-4 weeks after they had been sent their matches]

 

SINCE HURRYDATING…

Of the matches that you received:

you_call:

(a) How many have you contacted to set up a date?

them_cal:

(b) How many have contacted you?

 

date_3:

Have you been on a date with any of your matches?

Yes=1

No=2

 

If you have been on at least one date, please answer the following:

numdat_3:

(a) How many of your matches have you been on a date with so far?

num_in_3

If yes, how many?

 

What do you look for in the opposite sex?

Please distribute 100 points among the following attributes — give more to attributes that were more important in your decisions when Hurrydating, and less to attributes that were less important. Total points must equal 100.

We want to know what you look for in the opposite sex.

Please rate the importance of the following attributes in a potential date on a scale of 1-10 (1=not at all important, 10=extremely important):

attr1_3

Attractive

sinc1_3

Sincere

intel1_3

Intelligent

fun1_3

Fun

amb1_3

Ambitious

shar1_3

Has shared interests/hobbies

 

Now, think back to your yes/no decisions during the night of the Speed Dating event. Try to distribute the 100 points among these six attributes in the way that best reflects the actual importance of these attributes in your decisions. Give more points to those attributes that were more important in your decisions, and fewer points to those attributes that less less important in your decisions. Total points must equal 100.

attr7_3

Attractive

sinc7_3

Sincere

intel7_3

Intelligent

fun7_3

Fun

amb7_3

Ambitious

shar7_3

Has shared interests/hobbies

 

 

Now we want to know what you think MOST of your fellow men/women look for in the opposite sex.

Please rate the importance of the following attributes on a scale of 1-10 (1=not at all important, 10=extremely important):

attr4_3

Attractive

sinc4_3

Sincere

intel4_3

Intelligent

fun4_3

Fun

amb4_3

Ambitious

shar4_3

Has shared interests/hobbies

 

 

What do you think the opposite sex looks for in a date?

Please rate the importance of the following attributes on a scale of 1-10 (1=not at all important, 10=extremely important):

attr2_3

Attractive

sinc2_3

Sincere

intel2_3

Intelligent

fun2_3

Fun

amb2_3

Ambitious

share2_3

Has shared interests/hobbies

 

 

Please rate your opinion of your own attributes, on a scale of 1-10 (1= awful and 10=great). Be honest!

attr3 _3

Attractive

sinc3_3

Sincere

intel3_3

Intelligent

fun3_3

Fun

amb3_3

Ambitious

 

And finally, how do you think others perceive you?

Please rate yourself how you think others would rate you on each of the following attributes, on a scale of 1-10 (1=awful, 10=great)

attr5_3

Attractive

sinc5_3

Sincere

int5_3

Intelligent

fun5_3

Fun

amb5_3

Ambitious