The Coaches Said...What?: Analysis of Online Dating Strategies Recommended by Dating Coaches

Despite the popularity of online dating systems, prior work indicates that online daters struggle to present and evaluate traits germane to attraction. However, the research community is largely unaware of successful online dating system-use strategies and how the knowledge of these strategies could inform system design. In this paper we begin to address this gap in knowledge with an interview study of online dating coaches who consider their advocated system-use strategies successful based on personal use and feedback from clients who implemented their strategies. Their advocated strategies entail keeping online evaluation intentionally minimal and persuading users to meet in-person as quickly as possible because current system designs stifle reliable evaluation of attraction-relevant traits online, notably personality. We discuss the implications of insights gathered from these strategies for online dating system design using theories relevant to romantic attraction.