DNA-Based Dating Services
October 18, 2009 by Kelli DesRochers
Filed under Relationships
Have you heard about new dating services that match singles based on their DNA? Instead of filling out forms with pages of personal questions, applicants for these matchmaking services send in a swab from the inside of their cheek for DNA analysis. I just read a fabulously interesting article in Women’s Health Magazine by Andrew Postman called “Your DNA looks hot tonight” about new scientifically-advanced versions of online dating services.
In 2007 Eric Holzle founded a service called scientificmatch.com as a DNA matchmaking site for those living in the Boston/Providence region. The service is based on three MHC (Major Histocompatibility Complex) gene pairs that are found in humans. These alleles are said to indicate a connection between the attractiveness of smells of a potential mate, happiness and compatibility as a couple, and healthiness of offspring. Some scientific research has shown that the greater the difference between the three gene pairs in the man and woman, the better the match.
Holzle’s matchmaking exploration was inspired by Claus Wedekind’s 1994 “sweaty T-shirt experiment” at the Zoological Institute at Bern University in Switzerland. The experiment tested sweat smells, attractiveness, and MHC to find the correlation between these elements. If humans fit in with the theory of evolution, the natural scents that humans emit and are attracted to in one another could be directly connected to the ability of the two to mate successfully (which in modern times would mean to have a happy lifelong monogamous relationship and healthy children).
Why go through the trouble of matching hobbies and values if, in the end, you just aren’t going to be attracted to each other? Wouldn’t it be nice to find out if you’ll be able to have healthy babies before you even go on the first date? Holzle believes that scientificmatch.com is the future of matchmaking, but he needs more participants to continue his research. The cost of a lifelong membership is $1,995.95 so the high price is definitely going to be a factor that dissuades curious singles from experimenting with this new type of service.
The jury is definitely still out on the success of this type of matchmaking and I predict many many years before we will be able to have conclusive results. If “health of offspring” is a benefit to this type of dating service, then companies like this are going to need to follow up on successful couples who have children to quantify this factor. The results from experiments so far have been inconclusive and Holzle’s site hasn’t had enough participants to even propose a success rate at this point, but I am extremely curious to see how these scientific ideas find their way into modern matchmaking.
Image: sxc.hu
I think this is really going too far. What happened to plain old getting to know someone?
I wrote about this awhile back. I think that – and this is going to sound silly – but sniffing someone would work just as well and cost a whole lot less.