Propose with a rose? Signaling in internet dating markets
نویسندگان
چکیده
The large literature on costly signaling and the somewhat scant literature on preference signaling had varying success in showing the effectiveness of signals. We use a field experiment to show that even when everyone can send a signal, signals are free and the only costs are opportunity costs, sending a signal increases the chances of success. In an online dating experiment, participants can attach “virtual roses” to a proposal to signal special interest in another participant. We find that attaching a rose to an offer substantially increases the chance of acceptance. This effect is driven by an increase in the acceptance rate when the offer is made to a participant who is less desirable than the proposer. Furthermore, participants endowed with more roses have more of their offers accepted than their counterparts.
منابع مشابه
ORI GIN AL PA PER Propose with a rose? Signaling in internet dating markets
A growing number of papers theoretically study the effects of introducing a preference signaling mechanism. However, the empirical literature has had difficulty proving a basic tenet, namely that an agent has more success when the agent uses a signal. This paper provides evidence based on a field experiment in an online dating market. Participants are randomly endowed with two or eight ‘‘virtua...
متن کاملAppendix “ Propose with a Rose ? Signaling in Internet
1. Desirability Index 1.1 Comparing Experimental Participants to Other Clients We first show that the experimental participants are comparable to regular clients of the dating site. We compare the distribution of the desirability index among experimental participants and regular members of the dating company. Regular members are individuals who used the dating service between January 2005 and J...
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