Online Dating: Tools versus The Medium
I have a sort of ongoing dialogue with Dave Evans of Online Dating Insider.
To a recent blog post of his….
Synthetic Validity: a mathematical theory that attempts to bridge the gap between individuals’ personalities and abilities. Synthetic Validity, while being touted as the next big thing in Human Resources, may also be a good fit for the online dating industry.
I think pheromones are better for compatibility testing but what do I know?
Here’s what Mr. Steel has to say:
Originally designed for industry and their stricter requirements (e.g., able to withstand legal challenges), synthetic validity is a methodology to create a fully automatic selection system. By changing the metric from job performance to relationship satisfaction, you can use it to select romantic partners as well. In fact, it is much easier to use it for dating. It is simply putting “soul mate�? selection on a firm measurement and scientific foundation, taking advantage of 100 years of selection research….more
I responded…
Whether you will be heartened or discouraged by developments such as this depends on whether you presume that the Web’s greater service to human relationships will be as *medium* or as *tool*. This is clearly a tool. It is intended (or purports) to afford people insight into an area of human activity where we would all wish to be more insightful… more
SYNTHETIC VALIDITY | SYNTHETIC VALIDITY | MATHEMATICS OF LOVE
April 14th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Thought I might as well comment on this, given no one else will. You are right. It is just a tool. The idea is to standardize the selection process to make it as good as possible. They did the same thing about 100 years ago with boilers (it is where “boiler plate” comes from). The reason why? Many boilers were shoddily made, exploding, killing thousands every year. It is the same idea with the selection process. Really, we just want selection systems to go a good job, to use racially unbiased test, to exclude the incompetent from important positions. This is important. One example: imagine if all our detectives were twice as good — half the crime.