OKCupid Hides Good-Looking People From Less Attractive Users

The dating site OKCupid will begin hiding the hotties from the less-attractive users looking for love online.

The beautiful folks who fall into the top half of the site's most attractive users--as ranked by OKCupid click data and algorithms--will see more good-looking people in their searches than before. The move will help match members with other users whose attractiveness is similarly rated.

The Consumerist reproduced the email OKCupid sent to its better-looking members:

We are very pleased to report that you are in the top half of OkCupid's most attractive users. The scales recently tipped in your favor, and we thought you'd like to know...

Your new elite status comes with one important privilege:

You will now see more attractive people in your match results.

This new status won't affect your actual match percentages, which are still based purely on your answers and desired match's answers. But the people we recommend will be more attractive. Also! You'll be shown to more attractive people in their match results.

The "cerebral" OKCupid is notorious for how carefully it monitors data and stats on its site. The dating site regularly posts its finding to its blog, OkTrends. Previous posts have examined how race affects the messages members receive, how older women fare on the site, and more.

Mashable explains the metrics that were used to rate the hotter OKCupid users:

The e-mail (which was sent by the "OkCupid Summer Interns") specified that the determinations were made through analysis of clicks on users' photos and reactions in the Quiver and QuickMatch features. Those two tools ask users to quickly respond positively or negatively to photos accompanied by segments of profile text.

If you're looking for love online (and concerned about being listed with the less attractive users), check out these surprising tips for better online dating profile pictures.

Tell us what you think of OKCupid's move in the comments section below. Is this helpful or hurtful?

Comments

[GetAbike]

12:58 PM on 06/20/2010

Where's my email?
Oh.
dang!

[javaman]

10:31 AM on 06/20/2010

yeah, there is not class system.

heavy sarcasm

[Steve Haldane]

05:48 AM on 06/19/2010

Summer Interns say the dardnest things.

[huffimus prime]

05:53 PM on 06/18/2010

Isn't obvious this is a way for OkCupid to get members onto their site? I got this email and I'm telling you there's no way. Not only am I not one of the more attractive members, but my matches didn't change. It did get their name in the news though.

[noweknow]

04:53 PM on 06/18/2010

Face control? They do this at some night clubs.

[junkiebev]

03:37 PM on 06/18/2010

i got this email a month ago and it made my night.

I'm witty, I'm cute, I'm popular to boot!

[sesosrefritos]

01:16 PM on 06/18/2010

Eugenics is alive and well.

[joocee102]

04:11 AM on 06/19/2010

Ha ha ha. I remember him, and his racist logic.

Good one.

Fanned.

[Ultra429]

12:10 PM on 06/18/2010

So if I take a pic of my super hot co-worker and pass it off as myself, I win??? Ha ha ha. I bet if you were to meet one of these so-called hotties, you would find yourself faced with mega-beast.

[booker52]

11:35 AM on 06/18/2010

So who is deciding who is or isn't attractive??? It's really subjective.

[awa611]

07:30 PM on 06/18/2010

Ya it is. Personality has a lot to do with the attractiveness of a person.

[Steve Haldane]

05:48 AM on 06/19/2010

Well, apparently the click data (attractive faces get clicked more) is deciding so it's pretty objective, IMO. That's unless they're also doing some shady stuff like matching women on looks and men on income.

[Will G]

11:27 AM on 06/18/2010

I'm in the top wtf, it most be broken or something.

[Delores Williams]

11:20 AM on 06/18/2010

How absolutely insulting, but then abercrombie and fitch has gotten away with hiding their "less attractive" employees in stock rooms for years.

[cabaretchatnoir]

05:45 AM on 06/20/2010

And do forget the employees that are members of a different race. That is why I still haven't bought anything from that store.

[cbini]

09:23 AM on 06/18/2010

Now to make the uggos pay to access the pretty profiles...

[redsongia]

10:57 AM on 06/18/2010

Looking is free if you buy our products.

That's how it's been for some time now. Beauty has long been held hostage by marketing.

[teslpro]

09:15 AM on 06/18/2010

See, ostracizing and excluding is perfectably ethical behaviour when you build a gadget to do it for you. Aggregate information: all the cruelty you dished out in high school, never worry about facing your victim, and all at the click of a button. You can see the sociopaths of the future getting all nostalgic over the clunky technology they used to have to struggle with . . .

[bartonfink]

08:51 AM on 06/18/2010

Actually, this list could have a reverse benefit for the people excluded. Who wants to be involved with someone for whom looks are that important anyway? Since statistically, people tend to couple with other people of similar attractiveness anyway, this icky company has just cleaved away a segment of the dating pool that probably wasn't that available to begin with, and for whom attractiveness was presumably a disproportionately important qualifier anyway. The biggest loser here? I'm guessing ugly men with big bank accounts and appropriately compensatory automobiles.

[redsongia]

10:56 AM on 06/18/2010

But it's not the attractive people who are segregating themselves, other users are doing it.

It really goes to show how limited online dating is, because it does revolve around a photo. The hottest guy I ever dated had a face like it was hit with a meat tenderizer. Couldn't have picked him out of an on-line line up, but in person, it's evident in about 2 seconds.

[bartonfink]

12:06 PM on 06/18/2010

Right. The attractive people are being corralled by the site's administrators, delivering a dose of reality AND a side benefit to the uglies. (I would happily list myself as one, btw) I've never used a service myself, in part because of the reason you state: a pic tells you nothing. The sites that are heavy on personality profiling would seem a better bet. In my own experience, pretty much every relationship I've had was the result of working closely with someone, in school or on the job, which allowed us to develop a rapport no dating site could hope to provide. That, and I've never taking a decent photo in my life ;)

[navigo]

08:35 AM on 06/18/2010

How nice. Ted Bundy would have qualified.