Virtual Dating Can Neutralize “Cognitive Overload” of Online Dating
The NY Daily News reports that giving people too many choices can backfire. Users of online dating Web sites actually experience a “cognitive overload” and make poorer decisions as a result. The article concludes that “Yet there is hope — at least in the online dating world. A new start-up company, called OmniDate, offers users the chance to interact with 3-D avatars in a virtual world, revealing information about themselves that may only come out through conversation.”
We agree: Virtual dating addresses a big gap in the online dating process and can effectively neutralize “cognitive overload.”
There is an enormous availability of profiles, but poor communication tools for getting to know the person behind the profile. There are literally hundreds of dating sites and tens of millions of profiles out there, which creates an illusion of choice. Unfortunately, this illusion of choice – in the absence of dating-appropriate communication tools – impedes the effectiveness of online dating. It changes people’s thinking, as they start treating each other as inventory. Instead of discovering areas of fit between them through conversation, as they would in an offline situation, online daters instead look for reasons to quickly eliminate profiles from their search because there is just too much “inventory” to sift through. As a result, people dating online tend to reject prospective mates too quickly on the basis of factors that have little or nothing to do with a successful relationship – just look at the many various ways you can filter prospective mates on a typical dating site.
On some level, this behavior makes sense, since it can be challenging to get to know the person behind the profile. Most people don’t feel comfortable jumping on the phone with a stranger just because he has a polished profile or displaying themselves on a webcam. In fact, a set of surveys from the UK revealed that two-thirds of women who tried webcams on a dating site said they would never do it again.
What’s needed is a non-intrusive, yet facilitated way to let online daters get to know the person behind the profile. That’s where virtual dating comes in. It’s a great way to get a feeling for the other person without making an emotional investment upfront. By “experiencing” the other person through conversation, online daters are more likely to discover the real person behind the profile … and find a match.
Tags: cognitive overload, illusion of choice, Online Dating, Virtual Dating