All About Online Love

When Dan Ariely was a teenager, he suffered burns so severe that he spent three years in the hospital. Ariely worried about how his injuries would affect the way he fit in socially — especially when it came to dating.

Now a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University, Ariely recently spoke with Today Show correspondent Amy Robach about relationships and dating. Ariely and Eli Finkel — lead author of a new study on online dating in Psychological Science in the Public Interest — were featured in a CNBC report on online dating that aired Thursday, February 9. The report profiled entrepreneurs in the online dating business, matchmakers, psychological scientists who study human behavior, and everyday people who have used online dating sites. Viewers got a firsthand look at how algorithms and psychological science fit into the online dating business.

For more on Ariely’s take on Internet dating, read this blog post in which he describes what happened when a group of singles looking for love online was pushed to skip the small talk by asking provocative questions like “How do you feel about abortion?” and “Do you have any STDs?”