Earlier this summer, Facebook found itself in controversy. Reports revealed Facebook deliberately manipulated other people’s emotions. Now a popular dating site was caught doing the same.
OK Cupid’s CEO Christian Rudder admitted to such psychological mind games. He admits this site has removed text from people’s profiles, removed photos, and told people they were compatible matches, when in reality, they were poor matches. These experiments reveled when profiles while removed, people had more in depth conversations. When profile pictures are left, conversations are far less. The reason OK Cupid told people they were 90% compatible when they were really 30% compatible was in hopes they could get together and OK Cupid would get the credit.
Christian Rudder makes no apologies. He defends these practices, pretty much claiming he’s just doing what other websites do all the time. He says, “…if you use the Internet, you’re the subject of hundreds of experiments on any given time, on every site.” Remember when our parents used to tell us, “If everybody else jumped off a bridge…?” You know the rest. So I don’t accept this as an excuse to manipulate, lie and deceive the public. But is he right? This and the Facebook controversy makes me wonder how many more social media sites are using deceptive tactics to play with people’s minds. I’m not saying it’s right. I think this whole operation is morally and ethically wrong. If I went around blatantly lying to people like OK Cupid did, I’d be either fired, arrested, or in some situations, even worse. Who is going to be the next website we hear of do this?