> Lying in this way is ethically questionable at best (and highly entertaining), but, unfortunately I had no other way to get the required data.<p>I like the researchers honesty. :)<p>So in regards to OKCupid, there are people who do ethical research (not creating fake profiles) like this guy did with his Python scraping:<p><a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/01/how-to-hack-okcupid/" rel="nofollow">https://www.wired.com/2014/01/how-to-hack-okcupid/</a><p>And not so ethical research, like this girl who created fake profiles (and also refuses to date non-jews -- which is the whole 'are preferences racism?' question that can take multiple blog posts on its own):<p><a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_webb_how_i_hacked_online_dating/transcript?language=en" rel="nofollow">https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_webb_how_i_hacked_online_datin...</a><p>Additionally, the way I use Tinder is that I swipe a like before the image loads in rapid succession (hopefully before the image loads and thereby minimizing my mobile data usage .. but even if I'm on Wi-fi I still do this. It's just easier). The researcher's 1 in 115 statistic feels about accurate from my own empirical observations.<p>I'd say I'm well over the 100 range or rapid swiping before (if) I get a match. It usually takes 2 ~ 3 days for a single match. From what I've found, you get 100 swipes per 12 hours. I wouldn't get on more than once a day, so I'd say my match percentage is probably 1 in 200~300. I'd be tempted to measure it, but I'm way more lazy than this guy .. and lonely.