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The effect of a status symbol on success in online dating: an experimental study (data paper)
  • Sebastian Sauer,
  • Alexander Wolff
Sebastian Sauer
FOM University of Applied Sciences

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Alexander Wolff
FOM University of Applied Sciences
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Abstract

Evolutionary psychology suggests that women and men differ in their mating strategies. We operationalized a central claim of evolutionary psychology by manipulating social status of profiles at a dating website: one group of profiles was depicted with a luxury sports car (high status) and second group without car (low status). Six profile were set up (3 female, 3 male) for each of the two groups. Two type of response variables were collected: Whether a “match” occurred (n=3515), and whether a message was sent to the profile (n=1548). Beauty and hip-waist-ratio of straw persons, and age of contacting individuals were recorded. Given strong effect sizes, large sample size, and high interest in human mating, this data set should be of interest for applied researchers in human mating and social psychology.