At the Seeker, Manya Brachear asks, “Should a dating service be allowed to exclude gays and lesbians based on religious principles?”
Paul Bretten, a spokesman for eHarmony, cautions that charter members of CompatiblePartners.net are not as scientifically guaranteed to find marital bliss because same-sex matches made so far are based on the company’s research regarding heterosexual couples. The gay singles that sign up are essentially guinea pigs, he said.
“We haven’t done that level of research at this point,” he said. “It’s using the exact same matching models.”
Bretten explained that eHarmony’s matching models take the qualities of happily married couples and apply those to singles. According to the company, algorithms that weigh and combine 29 different dimensions of compatibility—fundamental values, personality traits and interests—can predict the success of certain relationships. Spirituality is one of those dimensions, Bretten said. But he wouldn’t reveal how high it ranks.
“That’s the secret sauce for our matching models,” he said.
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