Gender Gating? Addressing the Impact of Congestion on the User Experience for Women in Online Matrimonial Matching Platforms

Online dating and matrimonial matching platforms suffer from a common problem: Men far outnumber women, making it harder for parties to find matches. Men face inordinately low odds of making a connection with women, whereas women face a barrage of messages from unsuitable men. Gender skew causes women to leave the platform, worsening the problem. In a field experiment with a large Indian matrimonial platform, we test a proposed solution called "gender gating": a default setting where we restrict the visibility of women profiles to men who “match” their requirements, based on accepted social norms on age, education, and income. Women can choose to override these defaults. The logic is simple: Limiting visibility cuts unwanted attention at source instead of requiring women to exert effort in screening messages. We see positive results: Among treated women, incoming requests fell 7%, and matching efficacy (incoming requests converting to matches) rose 72%. Women initiated 75% of contacts themselves, indicating growing comfort with the platform. Importantly, outcomes for men did not worsen because they saw profiles that were suited to them per social norms. In all, our approach shows that platform design grounded in local norms is a more precise lever than blanket regulations.

• 저널Information Systems Research
• 토픽Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
• DOI10.1287/isre.2024.1008
• 저자Sabari Rajan Karmegam, Anandasivam Gopal, Jui Ramaprasad