Compatibility Tests: Do They Really Work?
Many online dating sites and services offer compatibility testing, and for several of the most successful sites these tests are integral to their matching algorithms. They’ve seemed to work for a pretty wide variety of people – but is it really down to the test itself, or is the most important factor elsewhere?
The Idea Behind Dating Compatibility Tests
Generally speaking, these tests consist of a series of questions – which in some cases can be very long – that you answer so that a mathematical algorithm can then calculate a score to determine how much you have in common with any one person. This is often useful, because it means that you can know at a glance how similar you are to the people you’re considering talking to or meeting up with. The scores tend to be based on what we know of personality indicators, generally taken from various psychological and scientific principles. Of course, there’s also a dose of common sense in there – people who answer questions about dating styles similarly are more likely to enjoy dating each other, for obvious reasons.
What Are The Success Rates Like?
There’s no denying that these tests and the sites that use them have given a huge amount of opportunity to thousands of people the world over, but there’s usually not a lot of actual science behind it; the reported and inferred success of these tests is generally anecdotal rather than proven. That said, the wealth of anecdotal evidence out there is great enough to be pretty compelling – some of the biggest test-based sites report very good results indeed from proper use of their algorithms.
How To Use Compatibility Tests Usefully
- Your results will be useless unless you answer the questions honestly. Stick to the truth, and don’t answer as the person you want to be or the person you think others will like.
- Take other peoples’ results with a grain of salt, and remember that answers to these questions might have had more to do with the mood they were in when they answered than with their real personality. Think realistically about the answers you’ll accept from others.
- Bear in mind that no matter what someone’s answer to a question might have been, you won’t really understand them till you’ve spoken to them yourself.
As with all things, there’s a right and a wrong way to go about answering questions on these tests. As a general rule of thumb, here are some things that you should bear in mind when contemplating their efficacy: