--- title: OKCupid Says Every Website Experiments on Humans, Not Just Facebook description: OKCupids relaunched the blog OKTrends to reveal Facebook isn't the only site experimenting on human beings canonical: https://time.com/3047603/okcupid-oktrends-experiments/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-28T19:05:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T08:57:56.240Z og:title: Facebook Isn't the Only Website Running Experiments on Human Beings og:description: OKCupid cops to the trend og:url: https://time.com/3047603/okcupid-oktrends-experiments/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d5f0d65bcdbab2b/6986827a1eebf71f9336f801/bc9209-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4555 og:image:height: 2562 og:image:alt: Online Dating og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Facebook Isn't the Only Website Running Experiments on Human Beings twitter:description: OKCupid cops to the trend twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d5f0d65bcdbab2b/6986827a1eebf71f9336f801/bc9209-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Facebook Isn't the Only Website Running Experiments on Human Beings > Sponsored content. 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It covers the reporting, scoops and conversations shaping AI and the decisions facing leaders. #### Where can I get reported AI news rather than commentary? In the Loop is TIME's AI newsletter, built on original reporting and access to the people building and governing AI. It publishes Tuesdays and Fridays and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes TIME's In the Loop? Harry Booth, a tech reporter at TIME, writes In the Loop. #### Is In the Loop free? Yes. In the Loop is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-loop-2026q3/newsletters?i=53c3131a-b37a-4044-ab65-cfb12d4d9bbc&cr=time-nl-loop-2026q3-v1) ## Video: OKCupid Secretly Experimented On Users … Sound Familiar? [Watch (HLS stream): OKCupid Secretly Experimented On Users … Sound Familiar?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/et33vYhT.m3u8) (1:25)  _Published 2014-07-29. OKCupid has copped to setting up users who weren’t good matches and removing users’ pictures as part of an experiment._ by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Jul 28, 2014 7:05 PM UTC OKCupid has copped to setting up users who weren’t good matches and removing users’ pictures as part of an experiment. by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Jul 28, 2014 7:05 PM UTC It was the Facebook study heard ’round the world. In June, [the social network revealed that it had briefly tweaked its algorithm](http://time.com/2936729/facebook-emotions-study/) for a lucky (or unlucky) 698,003 users to make them feel happier (or sadder) based on what they see on their Newsfeed. The reaction to human experimentation—creepy emotional manipulation! mind control!—came out so strong, that Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) [asked the FTC to investigate.](http://mashable.com/2014/07/09/mark-warner-facebook/) Christian Rudder, the co-founder of dating site OKCupid, was shocked by the internet’s shock. “It’s just a fact of life online,” he says. “There’s no website that doesn’t run experiments online.” And so, Rudder posted OKTrends’ first blog post in three years Monday to announce to the world, [“We experiment on human beings!”](http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/we-experiment-on-human-beings/) Rudder relaunched the site with the revelation that “OkCupid doesn’t really know what it’s doing,” which is why it uses human guinea pigs. And to be honest, “If you use the Internet, you’re the subject of hundreds of experiments at any given time, on every site.” For example, OkCupid decided to run an experiment in which it told people who were bad matches (30%) that they actually had a compatibility score of 90%. And the result was that they were far more likely to exchange four messages — aka an actual “conversation” — with a bad match they thought was good than with a bad match they knew was subpar.  OkTrends Luckily, OKC investigated further and found that all online daters aren’t just sheep. Matches were far more likely to have conversations with people they were actually matches with as opposed to people they were _told_ they were good matches with.  OkTrends Other experiments [can be found in the OkTrends blog post.](http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/we-experiment-on-human-beings/) Rudder argues that some online experiments can lead to offline life changes, like when Facebook tests out a new layout on a small percent of users to see if it’s more effective. “My wife’s Facebook was ordered differently than mine,” he says. “You know, I’m not saying that we are now totally different people, but she saw some news that I didn’t see and she reacted to it and whatever.” Or the changes can be bigger, Rudder says. “On OkCupid, when we make a change, even a mundane one, that changes who people talk to, who they flirt with, who they go on dates with, and I’m sure in some cases who they get married to.” At the end of the day, Rudder thinks, “If you like Facebook or think that Reddit is a good thing or OKCupid is a good thing, then almost by definition experiments can be good. That’s the only way you get from Facemash, which Mark Zuckerberg made in his dorm room, to Facebook.” ## Transcript [00:00] Looking for dates online could make you the [00:02] unknowing subject of a social experiment. Hello. My [00:05] name is Christian Rudder, and I was one of the [00:07] founders of OKCupid. In a blog post, Rudder revealed [00:10] the popular dating site had run experiments on its [00:12] users by removing users' pictures and setting up [00:15] mismatched couples. One of the reasons Rudder cited [00:19] for announcing the experiment was the media [00:21] firestorm Facebook provoked when it revealed earlier [00:24] this summer. That it experimented with users in 2012 [00:27] by altering their news feeds. Some outlets seem [00:30] confused about what exactly Ok Cupid's motivation [00:33] was in conducting the experiment. Doesn't that just [00:36] mean that these people aren't going to find their love [00:37] match and they will just keep shopping on OK Cupid, [00:41] that is what I think. Or that it doesn't matter. Yeah, or [00:42] that it doesn't matter, good point Sarah Isaac, you are [00:44] the best. I have to assume they were doing it rather, so [00:47] they could kind of tune their algorithms. But you know, [00:49] people are basically going to them with their hearts [00:54] open, right? You know, looking for love. And that [00:57] touches on one reason some might be upset. OKCupid [01:00] specifically deals with people's feelings while Facebook [01:04] has more general uses. A possible reason for the [01:06] announcement as Bloomberg pointed out. Rutter has a [01:09] book coming out in September and could be trying to [01:12] get some press before it's published. Either way, OK, [01:15] Cupid's revelation hasn't really seen the backlash that [01:18] Facebook's did, and that might be because it only has [01:20] 30 million users, a fraction of Facebook's 1. 1 billion. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3047603/okcupid-oktrends-experiments/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3047603/okcupid-oktrends-experiments/"},"headline":"Facebook Isn't the Only Website Running Experiments on Human Beings","datePublished":"2014-07-28T19:05:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T08:57:56.240Z","description":"OKCupid proudly cops to the trend","url":"https://time.com/3047603/okcupid-oktrends-experiments/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Tech","Living","Internet","Technology","okcupid","facebook","relationships","privacy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d5f0d65bcdbab2b/6986827a1eebf71f9336f801/bc9209-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d5f0d65bcdbab2b/6986827a1eebf71f9336f801/bc9209-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Online Dating","caption":"Online Dating","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3047603/okcupid-oktrends-experiments/","name":"Facebook Isn't the Only Website Running Experiments on Human Beings"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"OKCupid Secretly Experimented On Users … Sound Familiar?","description":"OKCupid has copped to setting up users who weren’t good matches and removing users’ pictures as part of an experiment.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/et33vYhT/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-07-29T16:18:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/et33vYhT.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3047603/okcupid-oktrends-experiments/","duration":"PT1M25S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3047603/okcupid-oktrends-experiments/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```