Thursday, December 25, 2008

DNA & Dating

I blogged back in January about ScientificMatch, a dating service that, perhaps rather unromantically, matches people based on their genes. I see New Scientist magazine has caught on, and has published a great article about this rather odd development. The author of the piece, Linda Geddes, summarizes the scientific rationale for the service, delves into several of the criticisms thereof and, most interestingly, subjects herself and her fiancée to the testing. Good stuff indeed.

My bottom line, for what it's worth, is that it's plausible to think this kind of genetic matching is an improvement over sheer chance, but I doubt very much it'll be superior to our evolved sexual psychology. (Although I do suspect it'll in general predict compatibility better than questionnaire-based online matching services). So, if you're wealthy and lonely, give it a try... otherwise, stick to the singles bars.

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