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9.5 Some examples 255

and religion) and responses to those initial contacts were even more highly
correlated to the presence of similar characteristics. Note that “user” is a
more appropriate term than “participant,” since these users did not choose to
participate in the research.
Lee and Bruckman (2007) examined the use of general purpose social
networking sites (such as MySpace and Facebook) for dating. They interviewed
12 people who had used Friendster or MySpace for dating (Lee and Bruckman,
2007), recruited through public postings (e.g. on Craigslist) and word of mouth.
Although some of the interviews were in person and some were conducted by
phone, all of the participants allowed the researchers to examine their social
networking profiles. Participants described the credibility provided by contacts
within the social networks as an advantage in meeting potential dates, as
friends would be likely to challenge or respond negatively to misrepresentation.
Participants specifically found the set of “top friends” useful for providing
credible information. The number of friends, types of comment left by friends,
and types of picture posted also provided useful details about potential dates.
Participants who began dating people met on a social networking site also
commented that the site could provide useful feedback on their relationship
status, through their rank on their new partner’s “top friends” list.
Fiore et al. (2008) tried to identify online dating features most strongly
associated with assessments of the attractiveness of potential dates. They
used a random selection of 25 male and 25 female profiles from the Yahoo!
Personals website, five each from different cities in the USA (Fiore et al.,
2008), constructing four different versions of each profile: picture, free text,
fixed-choice answers, and full profile, which includes all three sections. A
group primarily made up of university students evaluated the various profile
components for attractiveness. The researchers found that the photo had the
greatest impact on perceptions of attractiveness, but the free text also greatly
influenced perceptions of attractiveness. The fixed-question responses did not
impact on perceptions of attractiveness, except in cases where they were used to
evaluate “deal-breakers,” such as smoking.
Although the complex phenomena and group dynamics of online dating
might make ethnography seem an appealing research method, there are a
number of troubling ethical and logistical questions. If you were to research
online dating communities, would you be a true participant? Would the
emotion of meeting and dating these people cause you to lose your sense of
objectivity? Furthermore, is it ethical to go on a date acting as if a long-term
relationship was the main goal, when it is a research exercise? Would that be
misleading? If you were to notify people that you are doing research, would
that lead to loss of credibility or access into the community? If you were to
not notify people about your research, wouldn't that be unethical? Would it
even be possible to be a complete observer, watching from the sidelines?

(Continued)