Paper ID
2441
Paper Type
short
Description
We study the effect of performance feedback on agents’ subsequent behavior changes under the context of two-sided online matching markets, where performance depends on not only effort but also the idiosyncratic tastes of the matching side. In collaboration with an online dating platform, we design and conduct a randomized field experiment to reveal comparative performance information to its users, and find that performance feedback has heterogeneous effects among different genders and users of different performance tiers. Males tend to feel encouraged by “good news” and increase subsequent effort, whereas females become discouraged by “bad news” and reduce subsequent effort. Moreover, males exhibit pragmatic adaptations in “calibrating selectivity” and “self-marketing” after receiving performance feedback while females are far less strategic and display “romantic” persistence in their selectivity. By investigating post-feedback strategy changes, we complement the current literature that focuses primarily on agent efforts.
Recommended Citation
Shi, Lanfei and Huang, Peng, "Pragmatic Men, Romantic Women? Performance Feedback Design on Two-sided Matching Platforms" (2019). ICIS 2019 Proceedings. 23.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2019/behavior_is/behavior_is/23
Pragmatic Men, Romantic Women? Performance Feedback Design on Two-sided Matching Platforms
We study the effect of performance feedback on agents’ subsequent behavior changes under the context of two-sided online matching markets, where performance depends on not only effort but also the idiosyncratic tastes of the matching side. In collaboration with an online dating platform, we design and conduct a randomized field experiment to reveal comparative performance information to its users, and find that performance feedback has heterogeneous effects among different genders and users of different performance tiers. Males tend to feel encouraged by “good news” and increase subsequent effort, whereas females become discouraged by “bad news” and reduce subsequent effort. Moreover, males exhibit pragmatic adaptations in “calibrating selectivity” and “self-marketing” after receiving performance feedback while females are far less strategic and display “romantic” persistence in their selectivity. By investigating post-feedback strategy changes, we complement the current literature that focuses primarily on agent efforts.