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FOR as long as humans have romanced each other, others have wanted to meddle. Whether those others were parents, priests, friends or bureaucrats, their motive was largely the same: they thought they knew what it took to pair people off better than those people knew themselves.
只要一有人要找對象，周圍人就喜歡摻和。這些人，不管是父母、牧師、朋友還是同事，他們的說辭都一個模樣：你當局者迷啊，我旁觀者清，我比你更知道你該找個什么樣的，我來給你參謀參謀。
Today, though, there is a new matchmaker in the village: the internet. It differs from the old ones in two ways. First, its motive is purely profit. Second, single wannabe lovers are queuing up to use it, rather than resenting its nagging. For internet dating sites promise two things that neither traditional matchmakers nor chance encounters at bars, bus-stops and bar mitzvahs offer. One is a vastly greater choice of potential partners. The other is a scientifically proven way of matching suitable people together, enhancing the chance of "happily ever after".
如今，網絡紅娘新加入到這些人當中來。不同于傳統媒人的是，這位新式紅娘動機單純到只為掙錢；并且單身人士競相注冊使用，他們一點兒也不像原來那樣因討厭別人的絮叨而感到煩惱。這是為什么呢？原來，婚戀網站許諾了兩件事，這兩件事舊式紅娘辦不到，街頭邂逅也辦不到。其一，網站為單身們提供了大量的候選人；其二，網站總是宣稱他們可提供科學方法來幫助單身們找到合適人選，從而能增加伴侶們“從此過上幸福生活”的機率。
The greater choice is unarguable. But does it lead to better outcomes? And do the "scientifically tested algorithms" actually work, and deliver the goods in ways that traditional courtship (or, at least, flirtation) cannot manage? These are the questions asked by a team of psychologists led by Eli Finkel of Northwestern University, in Illinois, in a paper released—probably not coincidentally—a few days before St Valentine's day. This paper, published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, reviews studies carried out by many groups of psychologists since the earliest internet dating site, Match.com, opened for business in 1995. In it, Dr Finkel and his colleagues cast a sceptical eye over the whole multi-billion-dollar online dating industry, and they are deeply unconvinced.
更多選擇這一點毫無疑問，可這確實能帶來更好的結果嗎？而所謂的“科學驗證過的算法”真的有用嗎？這些算法真的能提供傳統的追求方式（至少是，調情方式）所辦不到的事嗎？ 美國伊利諾斯州西北大學伊萊·芬克博士領導的一個心理學專家小組關心的正是這些問題，他們恰是在情人節前（也許真的不是巧合）發表了這么一篇論文。這篇論文，發表在《公眾心理科學雜志》上，回顧了自最早的婚戀網站Match.com自1995年上線以來各路心理學家為此所做的各種研究成果。在這篇論文中，芬克博士和他的同事們對價值千億美元的網絡婚戀產業投去質疑的目光，而研究結論也確實令他們對本段開頭所提的那些問題答案更為懷疑了。
Blueprint for a perfect partner?
完美伴侶藍圖？
The researchers' first observation is not so much what the studies they examined have shown, but what they have been unable to show, namely how any of the much-vaunted partner-matching algorithms actually work.
研究人員最先著手的問題是：被過分夸大的伴侶匹配算法在實戰中是如何發揮作用的？這一點并非為之前的研究所驗證過，而恰是它們未能展示的部分。
Commercially, that is fair enough. Many firms preserve their intellectual property as trade secrets, rather than making it public by patenting it, and there is no reason why internet dating sites should not be among them. But this makes claims of efficacy impossible to test objectively. There is thus no independent scientific evidence that any internet dating site's algorithm for matching people together actually does enhance the chance of their hitting it off when they meet. What papers have been published on the matter have been written by company insiders who do not reveal how the crucial computer programs do their stuff.
從商業角度看，這并無不妥。很多公司都會將其智力成果作為商業機密而加以保護，根本不會去申請專利而使之公開，那么婚戀網站就沒理由不在其中啊。可這當然就會使得其所聲稱的有效性得不到客觀驗證。于是，根本就不存在獨立客觀的科學證據可以證明婚戀網站所發布的配對算法能夠增加人們相遇后互相覺得投緣的機率。有關這方面的發表論文均出自網站內部工作人員，他們根本就不會透露這個關鍵的電腦程序是如何進行計算的。
It is, though, possible to test the value of a claim often made for these algorithms: that they match people with compatible personality traits. No doubt they do, given the number of questions on such matters on the average application form. What is assumed, but not tested, however, is that this is a good thing—that those with compatible personalities make more successful couples than those without. To examine this proposition, Dr Finkel draws on a study published in 2010 by Portia Dyrenforth of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, in Geneva, New York.
然而，去驗證這些算法所歸納的結論又似乎是可能的：網站總是挑出那些具備包容性格的人進行配對。假設他們在申請表中列上一些有關這類性格的問題，電腦肯定能做到這件事。可是，這種說法與其說是種驗證不如說是種猜測——即假設那些具備包容性格的人比那些不太包容的人更容易找到對象。為了檢驗這個命題，芬克博士引用了刊登于2010年的一項研究成果，這項研究由位于美國紐約州日內瓦城的霍巴特威廉史密斯學院的波西亞·德萊佛斯（Portia Dyrenforth）所做。
