Popularity Feedback and Adaptation Strategies in Online Dating: A Social Comparison Perspective
Authors: Shi, Lanfei; Huang, Peng; Ramaprasad, Jui
Journal: MIS Quarterly (2025)
<jats:p>Digital platforms are increasingly employing informational nudges to motivate user participation. This paper examines the provision of popularity information as a feedback mechanism and its impact on users’ adaptation strategies. Leveraging ego utility theory and self-determination theory, we hypothesize that comparative popularity information—information that facilitates social comparison—will trigger different reactions based on gender and popularity level. In collaboration with an online dating service provider, we designed and conducted two randomized field experiments in which we provided popularity feedback to platform users and investigated their post-feedback behavioral changes in two adaptation strategies: the selectiveness in choosing potential partners (i.e., selectivity calibration) and the frequency of their online profile modifications (i.e., self-marketing). In the first experiment, where we revealed information about their popularity relative to other users, we found that those who received low-popularity feedback significantly increased self-marketing efforts and lowered their selectivity, but the opposite was observed in individuals who received high-popu…