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# OKCupid Secretly Experimented On Users … Sound Familiar?

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/et33vYhT.m3u8" -->
## 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)

![OKCupid Secretly Experimented On Users … Sound Familiar?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/et33vYhT/poster.jpg?width=720)

_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._


---

Jul 27, 2023 5:03 PM UTC

---

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---


## Transcript

Looking for dates online could make you the unknowing subject of a social experiment. Hello. My name is Christian Rudder, and I was one of the founders of OKCupid. In a blog post, Rudder revealed the popular dating site had run experiments on its users by removing users' pictures and setting up mismatched couples. One of the reasons Rudder cited for announcing the experiment was the media firestorm Facebook provoked when it revealed earlier this summer. That it experimented with users in 2012 by altering their news feeds. Some outlets seem confused about what exactly Ok Cupid's motivation was in conducting the experiment.

Doesn't that just mean that these people aren't going to find their love match and they will just keep shopping on OK Cupid, that is what I think. Or that it doesn't matter. Yeah, or that it doesn't matter, good point Sarah Isaac, you are the best. I have to assume they were doing it rather, so they could kind of tune their algorithms. But you know, people are basically going to them with their hearts open, right? You know, looking for love. And that touches on one reason some might be upset. OKCupid specifically deals with people's feelings while Facebook has more general uses. A possible reason for the announcement as Bloomberg pointed out.

Rutter has a book coming out in September and could be trying to get some press before it's published. Either way, OK, Cupid's revelation hasn't really seen the backlash that Facebook's did, and that might be because it only has 30 million users, a fraction of Facebook's 1. 1 billion.

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