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Self-Organising Map Approach to Individual Profiles: Age, Sex and Culture in Internet Dating

Author

Listed:
  • Teemu Suna
  • Michael Hardey
  • Jouni Huhtinen
  • Yrjö Hiltunen
  • Kimmo Kaski
  • Jukka Heikkonen
  • Mika Ala-Korpela

Abstract

A marked feature of recent developments in the networked society has been the growth in the number of people making use of Internet dating services. These services involve the accumulation of large amounts of personal information which individuals utilise to find others and potentially arrange offline meetings. The consequent data represent a challenge to conventional analysis, for example, the service that provided the data used in this paper had approximately 5,000 users all of whom completed an extensive questionnaire resulting in some 300 parameters. This creates an opportunity to apply innovative analytical techniques that may provide new sociological insights into complex data. In this paper we utilise the self-organising map (SOM), an unsupervised neural network methodology, to explore Internet dating data. The resulting visual maps are used to demonstrate the ability of SOMs to reveal interrelated parameters. The SOM process led to the emergence of correlations that were obscured in the original data and pointed to the role of what we call ‘cultural age’ in the profiles and partnership preferences of the individuals. Our results suggest that the SOM approach offers a well established methodology that can be easily applied to complex sociological data sets. The SOM outcomes are discussed in relation to other research about identifying others and forming relationships in a network society.

Suggested Citation

  • Teemu Suna & Michael Hardey & Jouni Huhtinen & Yrjö Hiltunen & Kimmo Kaski & Jukka Heikkonen & Mika Ala-Korpela, 2006. "Self-Organising Map Approach to Individual Profiles: Age, Sex and Culture in Internet Dating," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 11(1), pages 114-129, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:11:y:2006:i:1:p:114-129
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.1253
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Cinzia Meraviglia, 1996. "Models of representation of social mobility and inequality systems. A neural network approach," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 231-252, August.
    2. Hsinchun Chen & Ann M. Lally & Bin Zhu & Michael Chau, 2003. "HelpfulMed: Intelligent searching for medical information over the internet," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 54(7), pages 683-694, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. David Beer & Roger Burrows, 2007. "Sociology and, of and in Web 2.0: Some Initial Considerations," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 12(5), pages 67-79, September.

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