Taylor et al 2011

Question 1

matching hypothesis

Answer 1

we chose partners whom we believe to be of equal status and attractiveness as us

assumes that individuals assess their own levels of attractiveness and social desirability and select partners who match their levels in these areas

Question 2

aim

Answer 2

investigating the matching hypothesis, in a real life online dating website

Question 3

participants

Answer 3

60 heterosexual men
60 heterosexual women

they all were users of a dating website, which they were selected from at random

all of them were deemed as “initiators” meaning they were the one’s who first made contact with the other people on the dating webite

Question 4

procedure

Answer 4

the researchers tracked the activity of the participants on a real life dating app

they collected 6 profile photographs of the participants and people whom they contacted via the website, those who reciprocated as well as those who did not

in total, 966 photographs were collected

afterwards, they asked blind researchers to assess those photographs based on attractiveness, on a 7 points scale (-3 to 3)

they calculated the mean attractiveness of each participant and the other people on the dating site)

Question 5

results

Answer 5

the attractiveness of te people who were contacted via the dating app was significantly higher than that of the initiators

therefore, the findings do not support the matching hypothesis

Question 6

strengths

Answer 6

• the story has high ecological validity as it was based on a real life thing, could definitely happen in the real life
• due to the nature of the procedure, the participants cant have been influenced by demand characteristics
• the use of correlational analysis means that it is easy to compare quantitative data and to look for associations between variables
• should have high reliability (as a quantitaive study)
• can be replicated (which would further strengthen the reliability)

Question 7

weaknesses

Answer 7

• ethical considerations with taking photographs of the people and ranking them (??)
• study conducted on heterosexuals (cannot be generalised to homosexuals)
• people present themselves in an artificial and edited way in social medias and specifically dating profiles