But not one of the tests they offer has ever been subjected to the type of outside scientific verification that I have described. Why would a major company such as eHarmony, which claims to have 12 million members, not subject its "scientific, dimension" test to a scientific validation process?

In eHarmony personnel did present a paper at a national convention claiming that married couples who met through eHarmony were happier than couples who met by other means. Typically such a paper would then be submitted for possible publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

But this paper has still not been published, possibly because of its obvious flaws--the most problematic being that the eHarmony couples in the study were newlyweds married an average of six months , whereas the couples in the control group who had met by other means were way past the honeymoon period married an average of 2. eHarmony personnel, including its founder, Neil Warren, did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this article.

In , using eHarmony's own published statistics, a team of credible authorities--among them Philip Zimbardo, a former president of the American Psychological Association--concluded in an online white paper: "When eHarmony recommends someone as a compatible match, there is a 1 in chance that you'll marry this person Given that eHarmony delivers about 1.

scientific psychology is able to pair individuals who will enjoy happy, lasting marriages. Think about how difficult this task is. Most online matching is done, for example, by pairing up people who are "similar" in various respects. But you do not need to look farther than your own family and friends to know that similarity is not always a good predictor of success in a relationship.

Sometimes opposites really do attract. How could an online test possibly determine whether you should be paired with someone similar or with someone different, or with some magic mix? And even if validated predictive tests eventually appeared online, how could such tests possibly predict how two people will feel when they finally meet--when that all-important "chemistry" comes into play? Oddly enough, eHarmony does not even ask people about their body type, even though research shows unequivocally that physical appearance is important to both men and women.

But the biggest problem with online testing is the "false negative problem. The good news, though, is that according to psychologist Larry D. Rosen of California State University, Dominguez Hills, "In our studies only 30 percent of the people say they use [online tests] at all, and most of those people find them ridiculous.

High Hopes and Poor Odds Advertising materials from the largest online dating services--Match, eHarmony, True. com and Yahoo!

Personals--suggest that more than 50 million Americans are now using such services assuming relatively little overlap in membership and that satisfaction levels are high. But recent independent studies suggest that only 16 million Americans were using online dating services by late and that satisfaction levels were low.

Based on a phone survey with more than 2, people, Jupiter Research reports that "barely one quarter of users reported being very satisfied or satisfied with online personals sites. According to Trish McDermott, a longtime spokesperson for Match and now an executive at Engage.

com, the confusion over membership figures results from the fact that while a large company such as Match might advertise that it has 15 million members, less than a million are actually paying customers. The others have full profiles online--an important marketing draw--but cannot respond to e-mails.

This is one of several reasons, according to McDermott, why many paying members get frustrated by a lack of response to their e-mails; the vast majority of people in the profiles simply cannot respond. One of my greatest concerns about online dating has to do with what I call the "click problem.

Online dating probably is making things worse. No matter what Hollywood tells us, long-term relationships take patience, skill and effort. In cyberspace, unfortunately, the bar is so long and the action so quick that few people are willing to put up with even the slightest imperfection in a potential mate. If someone is the wrong height or wears the wrong shoes or makes the wrong kind of joke, he or she is often dismissed instantly.

After all, it is a simple matter to go back and click, with tens of thousands of potential mates ready to fill the void. Virtual Dating and More These many problems notwithstanding, the future of online dating and matchmaking looks bright. Interest is growing rapidly, and intense competition will force rapid changes in the kinds of services that are offered.

The online dating model is already developing rapidly. Phase one--the Long Bar--is exemplified by companies such as Match, True and Yahoo!

Phase two--the Long Test--is the bread and butter of companies like eHarmony and PerfectMatch. But phase three is already well under way. Engage, for example, allows members to bring friends and family with them online, all of whom can prowl the profiles, checking people out and matching them up.

Members can also rate the politeness of their dates, as well as the accuracy of the profiles. This is the new community approach to online matching--a naturalistic, social corrective for the deception that plagues cyberspace.

The community approach is also evident in the sprawling new social networking sites such as Facebook, Friendster and MySpace; MySpace alone has more than million members.

Although the social networking sites appeal mainly to young users and are not strictly dating sites, they bring the community back into whatever dating is generated there. On mega dating sites such as eHarmony and Match, dating is done in complete social isolation, a matter of great concern to Ellison and other researchers in this area. Anna Bevilacqua. The medial prefrontal cortex is thought to be important for guiding behavior according to an animal's expectations.

Efforts to decode the region have focused not only on the question of what information it computes, but also how distinct circuit components become engaged during behavior. We find that the activity of regular-firing, putative projection neurons contains rich information about behavior-al context and firing fields cluster around reward sites, while activity among putative inhibitory and fast-spiking neurons is most associated with movement and accompanying sensory stimulation.

These dissociations were observed even between adjacent neurons with apparently reciprocal, inhibitory—excitatory connections. A smaller population of projection neurons with burst-firing patterns did not show clustered firing fields around rewards; these neurons, although heterogeneous, were generally less selective for behavioral context than regular-firing cells. The data suggest a network that tracks an animal's behavioral situation while, at the same time, regulating excitation levels to emphasize high valued positions.

In this scenario, the function of fast-spiking inhibitory neurons is to constrain network output relative to incoming sensory flow. This scheme could serve as a bridge between abstract sensorimotor information and single-dimensional codes for value, providing a neural framework to generate expectations from behavioral state. sibila petlevski.

This paper traces the recent changes in the understanding of human mimetic mechanism and memory systems. One of the goals is to combine theoretical insight into the phenomenon of memory with performance theory and practical dramaturgy. There is an underlying presumption that none of the arts depends so much on memory as theatre and performance in the broad sense of the word. Bo Cartling. Others are less so.

For example, pick a user name that starts with letters in the first half of the alphabet. A through M seem to up the odds. And when filling in your profile, keep in mind the golden ratio. A profile all about you might come across as self-absorbed.

As for photos, previous studies suggest a genuine smile and a slight head tilt will boost your appeal. And group photos that showcase the fact that other people have fun around you are a good thing. Especially if you are in the center of the shot.

The researchers also write that women find men more attractive when they see other women smiling at him. Although my unscientific poll of a few female friends revealed that shots of other women smiling at you might be a no-no.

One of the more bizarre suggestions in that vein is to use rhyming in your note to a potential date. Thanks for the minute! Health: High Heels, High Risk.

Got a minute? Some of these evidence-based tactics are obvious. Post an attractive profile pic. Be nice. Be funny. Others are less so. For example, pick a user name that starts with letters in the first half of the alphabet. A through M seem to up the odds. And when filling in your profile, keep in mind the golden ratio. A profile all about you might come across as self-absorbed. As for photos, previous studies suggest a genuine smile and a slight head tilt will boost your appeal.

And group photos that showcase the fact that other people have fun around you are a good thing. Especially if you are in the center of the shot. The researchers also write that women find men more attractive when they see other women smiling at him.

Although my unscientific poll of a few female friends revealed that shots of other women smiling at you might be a no-no.

One of the more bizarre suggestions in that vein is to use rhyming in your note to a potential date. Thanks for the minute! Health: High Heels, High Risk. Health: Food Everywhere Fuels Obesity. Space: When Black Holes Collide. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Looking to get ahead in the online dating world?

Science has evidence for some surprising tips. Full Transcript. So you want to find a date. And you want science to help you. The review is in the journal, Evidence-Based Medicine. The Body. See More. Support science journalism.

Knowledge awaits. See Subscription Options Already a subscriber? Create Account See Subscription Options. Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription. Subscribe Now You may cancel at any time.

A Hormone May Boost Cognition in Down Syndrome The hormone GnRH may have potential for improving language, memory and other intellectual functions in people with Down syndrome, according to a pilot study Simon Makin. Create Account See Subscription Options. Download Free PDF View PDF. Often these services encourage users to rely on decision-making styles that are not well suited to the development of successful relationships. Dating sites provide access to potential sources of romance that might otherwise be unavailable to their clients. Many women are quite open about listing much younger ages, often stating in the text of their profiles that they have listed a younger age to make sure they turn up in searches.

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