Appendix “ 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 June 2006 and who satisfy the criteria required to participate in the experiment concerning age, education, and marital history. The black line in Figure A.A represents the desirability index distribution of regular male members, whereas the lighter red line represents that of male experimental participants. Similarly, Figure A.B presents the histogram of regular female members (black line) and female experimental participants (red line). Figures A.A and A.B show that experimental participants are similar to regular members in terms of the desirability index distribution, although female experimental participants have a slightly higher desirability index than regular female members.