Dating platform eharmony has released the findings of research the company recently conducted into the role humour plays in romantic compatibility.
It is part of a new strategy from eharmony to integrate the subject of humour into its matching system, by identifying different types of humour and connecting singles based on this.
This particular piece of research collected the thoughts of 1,500 users between April 2017 and June 2017.
Respondents were aged between 18 and 89 years old, and 28.2% identified as male, 71.8% as female.
For the study, participants were asked to rate how funny they found a series of memes from 1 to 5, in order to help eharmony define different styles of humour.
After analysing the results, eharmony scientists were able to define six types of “reactive humour”, which were:
- Bodily Humour
- Dark Humour
- Physical Humour
- Self-Deprecating Humour
- Surreal Humour
- Wordplay Humour
Respondents’ humour scores were then used to predict their communication over the first thirteen days after profile creation, results showing that respondents who found wordplay humour funny sent more initial messages than any other humour type, and were also significantly more likely to be viewed by other users.
eharmony also discovered that those who idenfied with wordplay or physical humour were most likely to communicate with others, whereas those with a surreal style of humour were the least likely to communicate.
In the coming months, eharmony plans to begin integrating humour matching into the platform, allowing users to take this meme survey and compare their results with potential matches.
The California company will also continue to research how humour affects initial chemistry when two people meet in person for the first time, and how this relates to long-term compatibility.
Grant Langston, CEO of eharmony explained this new focus: “It’s human nature to want to be with someone who can make you laugh. That’s why at eharmony we are putting humor to the test.
“We are always looking for new ways to connect people based on what matters most.
“With this research effort, our ultimate goal is to be able to bake humor into our complex machine learning algorithms and begin matching singles based on what makes for not only a great first date, but also a long lasting relationship.”
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