Talk:Speed dating

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[edit] Citation

Is there a citation somewhere for the statement that unsuccessful speed-daters have committed suicide? Joyous (talk) July 2, 2005 18:49 (UTC)

I removed ", while those with low self-esteem have been known to experience depression or even attempt suicide if their efforts at speed dating are unsuccessful. " until someone can cite a source about this. Joyous | Talk 16:33, 26 November 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Immunities

"A scientific view of speed dating is that eight minutes is more than sufficient to determine if the range of a mate's hormones, a key indicator of immunities, is complementary (different) from one's own. This is claimed by some researchers to be the key factor in the so-called "first impression", and since it is olfactory (smell-based), there is no need for two individuals considering child-raising to spend more time on first impressions, it being more important to "sniff out" other mates."

Immunities? In the sense of what, diplomatic immunitie? And human hormones being smell-based, the author here might be refering to the dubious issue of pheromones...in any case i am drasticall rephrasing and editing this unsientific, confusing and misleading paragraph


-Hold on. This sounded familiar, so i searched it out and yes, there was a serious study on this: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-1174.html "The Smell Of Love" Scroll down to "University of Bern". That said, ive heard the "sniffing" metaphor used in reference to these events, but didnt think it was meant so literally. I do think the olfaction study ought to be covered somewhere on the Wikipedia, and perhaps the "sniffing" metaphor could simply link to it. 141.154.25.95 01:25, 15 April 2006 (UTC)guest Apr 15 '06

-I added the Psychology Today link to the article 141.154.23.109 16:04, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Approval voting

This is not approval voting, since the object of speed dating is not to establish the most popular person. I have deleted the note. —Ashley Y 23:55, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Section controversy

e = (p / 2) * s (For heterosexual events)

Speed dating is considered, due to its low overhead and flexibility, to be akin to an agile method or open space conference. However, what's at stake in dating tends to be very different than the matters decided in an engineering or political conference.

Seriously, are you kidding me? Formulas for the duration of the event? Analogies to agile methods? This kind of stuff is completely unnecessary in a factual article, and it provides absolutely no additional insight. Somebody had way too much time on their hands. I'm removing some of this nonsense. --71.235.103.52 23:11, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Someone reverted my changes without modifying this discussion page. Please explain where my reasoning is wrong before you revert my changes again. Thanks. --71.235.103.52 00:05, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

For what its worth, I agree with 71.235.103.52, these sections are unverifiable nonsense that should not be in this article. I support their removal. gwernol 00:13, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
Just because you intolerant folks don't have an appreciation for the finer aspects of speed dating, it doesn't mean that others won't. If you think something is unnecessary, that is your opinion, and you cannot go about deleting things you find "unnecessary". The formulas are common knowledge for organizers of speed dating - they are absolutely crucial to organizing a speed dating event. I will be putting the section back unless you can disprove anything there, which you really cannot even if you try. And now don't you go around removing the mathematical formulas for common knowledge also. There is no reason to "dumb down" Wikipedia. --Amit 03:24, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
Please note that the burden of proof for inclusion of material on Wikipedia is with you: see WP:V ,specifically "The burden of evidence lies with the editors who have made an edit or wish an edit to remain". If you want to include this section, please provide verifiable sources that show it to be true. Thanks, gwernol 05:01, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
I suspect that 71.235.103.52's edits were initially reverted because the last one did not have an edit summary. And if the formulas are common knowledge, then there should be no problem verifying its accuray with a source. --PeruvianLlama(spit) 04:09, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
Common knowledge due to its very nature is not always published. In any case, even if a source for the formulas is not cited, the plain English conclusions are nonetheless very obvious and deserve mentioning. --Amit 04:20, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
If it hasn't been published, then it can't go in Wikipedia. Please reread the verifiability policy, linked under every edit box. "Articles should contain only material that has been published by reputable sources." Dpbsmith (talk) 00:43, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Popular culture items removed as unsourced

The following items were removed by User:Aaron Brenneman as unsourced, which they are. In my opinion, as a matter of courtesy, he should have tagged them as unsourced, waited a while, then copied them here, but in any case what he did is in accord with the verifiability policy.

I have provided a source for the item about Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink and reinserted it.

The others should be reinserted only if sources are also provided. As the verifiability policy notes, the responsibility of finding and citing sources lies with those who wish to include the items, not with those seeking to remove them. Dpbsmith (talk) 01:22, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

While I can freely admit that I occasionally err on the side of alacrity, I do always attempt to avoid discourtesy. I meant not to offend, as to my mind all the removed items were in the history if any editor wanted them. I appreciate the effort that Dpbsmith has made here. - brenneman {L} 02:42, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Items removed

Speed dating was featured in the following movies and television shows:

In a 2004 episode of Dead Like Me, "Hurry", Daisy goes speed dating to take the soul of one of the men participating.

A 2006 episode of the reality show Beauty and the Geek featured speed dating as one of the challenges faced by the "geeks".

An episode of Gilmore Girls featured Rory's friend Paris attempting speed dating after the death of her professor boyfriend, but finding herself frustrated with the lacking dating pool and elusive conversation.

In 2004 Solent Peoples Theatre (UK) adapted the format to create an activity for political representatives to consult with their constituents. A large number of UK local authorities now regularly hold Political Speed Dating events.

A 2002 episode of the Australian comedy series Kath and Kim, where Kim, estranged from her husband of 2 months, goes with her obese ugly friend Sharon to a speed dating event. However, all the girls there are overshadowed by Sharon due to her phenomenal knowledge of the game cricket.

This episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy featured a straight man that the Fab 5 made over to become worthy enough to pick up at a HurryDate brand speed dating party.

The dynamics of speed dating are discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink. (Reinserted with source)

[edit] Why would we need a source for that type of thing?

How should we source speed dating references in, say, a movie? If the movie already has an article on the Wikipedia shouldn't linking to it be source enough? And if it's a TV series maybe give the name of the episode plus a link? 141.154.23.165 21:58, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Restored pop culture section, with sources

I restored a heavily wikified version of what was removed. 141.154.23.109

[edit] Age and age preference

I'm new to Wikipedia, so please excuse me if I unintentionally infringe protocol! I have been looking into selection in dating and came across a recent study (October 2006) that investigates the relative effects of preference versus opportunity in mate selection. It used data from a commercial speed dating organisation and found that for women age is the single most important attribute affecting demand. Although it is less important for men, it is still highly significant. The study can be viewed here: [1]

Given that age plays such an important role in mate selection it occured to me that any speed dating company that was able to mesh the age and age preference of participants would be able to increase the success rate of their events. As the study noted, speed dating was used as a research mechanism because of the totally random selection of participants. My thinking is that if randomness could be reduced, at least along one critical dimension such as age/age preference, there would be more positive outcomes in the form of a greater proportion of mutual matches. It seems as if one commercial speed dating company has implemented something similar, the process is outlined here: [2]

This seems to me to be a significant evolution of the speed dating model, indeed the organisers claim that their 'match rate' is 90% (though I don't see how this can be verified). If nobody has any objections I think that this is interesting and will make a contribution next time I check back here.

[edit] Conclusions from the article?

I'd say that academic studies are always appreciated in an article like this. But I did have some trouble following the article and telling what lessons could be learned from it. Age isn't very surprising as a factor. Squidfryerchef 02:18, 4 December 2006 (UTC)