A data story about how people choose their partners
What influences love?
Is it a person's look, their intelligence, their humor or something else entirely?
A data story based on an american speed dating experiment with
551 participants who went on 4189 dates in total.
What people say they’re looking for
At the beginning of the experiment,
the participants were asked which attributes they were looking for in their potential partner.
But love is often unexpected...
Not all participants chose their partner according to their stated preferences.
What people are actually looking for
The participants' actual choices were compared with their stated preferences.
And what is the secret to go
on a second date?
The participants were asked whether they would meet up with a person again.
But how do the participants' attributes relate to this decision?
It's a match!
This chart show how a person’s attributes correlate with the attributes of a potential partner.
Using the dropdown menus, you can select the attributes of a person.
The filled hearts in this radar chart displays the estimated attributes of the potential partner based on the results of the experiment.
The heart outlines shows the average values of all matches.
But in the end...
Love is individual
The data shows that we are often influenced by attributes that we don't consciously realise beforehand. But that's exactly what makes love so exciting: it can't be completely calculated - and perhaps that's a good thing.
