Gender Gating Lifts Match Efficacy 72% on Indian Matrimonial Platform
Updated
Updated · SciTechDaily · Jul 5
Gender Gating Lifts Match Efficacy 72% on Indian Matrimonial Platform
1 articles · Updated · SciTechDaily · Jul 5
Summary
A field experiment on one of India’s largest matrimonial platforms found that limiting which women’s profiles men could see cut women’s incoming expressions of interest by 6% and raised match efficacy by 72%.
The intervention targeted a market where men typically outnumber women by 60:40 to 90:10, leaving women with about 40 times as many approaches as men and pushing some to disengage.
Under the “gender gate,” men could view women’s profiles only if they met default norms on age, income and education, while women could still adjust those settings themselves.
Women over 25 saw the biggest gains: match efficacy jumped 103% and the number of expressions of interest they initiated rose 113%, suggesting less screening burden increased agency.
The platform has already rolled the system out to all users, and the researchers say similar criteria-based filtering could aid other people-matching services, from ride-hailing safety settings to hiring.