Since launching the Stanford Dating Experiment, we’ve been impressed at The Daily by the awesome response from the student body. We really do want to thank all those who applied for their interest in our project.
We’ve received lots of questions about the project – here are responses to the most common questions. If you’d like any more clarification, feel free to email us.
Are you matching everyone and sending them on a free date?
Unfortunately, staffing and budgetary restrictions mean we can’t do this. We’re pairing a limited number of people based on our resources. If you are paired, you will hear from The Daily.
Are Daily Staffers participating?
No, they are not.
How are you matching and selecting participants?
Each participant goes through a selection committee of several staffers, and we do compatibility studies and statistics on each pair to make sure that we get a good match. The pairs with the best match are notified.
Is this affiliated to any Stanford departments or the University?
No, it is not. The Stanford Daily is an independent newspaper, and any activities we do are entirely independent and are not run by the University.
How do you keep things unbiased?
Our selection process is highly democratic and receives input from a wide range of voices. Those with a conflict of interest regarding a particular match are excluded from the relevant discussion.
Is it anonymous?
One of our goals for the project was to write about the fascinating interactions that happen when two people with so much in common (i.e. being Stanford students) who don’t know each other meet for the first time. To that end, every participant will be interviewed by us, and selections from the interview will be used in articles in The Daily. We will, of course, hold to our high standards of ethics and presentation when writing these stories. However, we will be using real names. Those selected to go on dates must confirm that they consent to be written about and their legal names being used before they participate in the Dating Experiment.
Contact Nitish Kulkarni at nitishk2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.