Frequently Asked Questions
What is someone’s “mate value bump”?
The simple way to think of this is: when you're traveling and step off the plane do you suddenly "become" more or less attractive? If so, that's your "mate value bump".
Let’s dive in more by tackling “mate value” first. In essence, it’s your overall attractiveness to a romantic partner. A scientific definition is below.
When we say “mate value bump” we’re talking about how this attractiveness level changes—for better or worse.
Going further, with respect to “expat mate value bump” we want to know how much someone’s attractiveness goes up or down depending on where he or she visits or emigrates.
“Mate value is the total sum of characteristics an individual possesses at a given moment and within a particular context that impacts their ability to successfully find, attract, and retain a mate.” From Components of Self-Perceived Mate Value (pdf) by Maryanne Fisher, Anthony Cox, Sasha Bennett, and Dubravka Gavric.
Why are you doing this?
Because we thought it’d be fun to do! Curiosity is the culprit. This quick and dirty data might not have much scientific use, but it’s still interesting to find out (roughly) how attractive you are considered by other groups of people. Perhaps your travel plans ought to take this information into account? There’s nothing wrong with assisted serendipity, is there? :)
Plus intensity maps are neat. The nerds in us got to come out and play.
Who is behind this?
Two expats living in Singapore—one Nepali and one American. They met at HackerspaceSingapore and immediately hit it off. Soon after, the mating (project) began. ;)
Kiran Joshi came in at the beginning to help develop the core idea. He coded the site and executed most of the project.
James Norris had the idea when he saw that some expats in Singapore had a significant advantage in dating. He was curious to see where the “sweet spot” might be for male Singaporeans. James focused on the front end.
Is this a scientific study?
We call it a quasi-study. We're using a pure convenience sample. People without internet access won't be able to participate.
Why did you choose to look at “identity groups” rather than races or ethnicities?
That's...complicated. Google race or ethnicity and try to figure out how many there are in the world. Then try to find out which ones are the most populous. It's not easy. Even the sociologists we consulted with couldn't help. So we opted to use "identity groups" instead.
We define an "identity group" as (a) a nationality or (b) a nationality plus an arbitrarily selected common group connected to that nationality. So American is a nationality but we also included "American - White" and "American - Asian" as two separate identity groups.
If you have a suggestion for how we can accurately tease out race or ethnicity, please let us know! A ready to use dataset would be wonderful.
It takes too long to answer questions!
That's not a question. =)
To make this work, we need a lot of data. Which are all of the identity groups that you're attracted to? And which are all of the groups that are attracted to you? Great, if you answer fully for the 200+ groups we have one set of data. We would only need a few hundred people to answer to make this work! But no one will answer all of the questions, so ultimately we need thousands of people answering as many as they can. It's for science! And come on, don't tell us this is the least productive thing you've done today! Facebook much, eh?
Can I get more nuanced information about my “mate value bump”?
Maybe! We may be able to do follow up work looking at the dataset from different angles. No promises though—we are both insane(ly busy).
What will you do with my data?
Produce mate value heat maps for you! If we can think of further analyses to do, we may do those, as well. We will never release any personally identifiable information about you.
What will you do with my email address?
The worst thing we will do is send you SPAM! But not the digital variety—the physical kind. But that’s only if we don’t like you. If we do like you, we’ll leave you be and never use your email inappropriately.
Why do I have to sign up?
So you're able to return later and answer more questions without having to repeat your entries. This helps with minimizing duplicate data on our end. And because we'd like the option of doing follow up work which might require emailing you with a link to a new survey.
I think this is pretty neat. Can I help?
Absolutely! Just email us at matevaluebump@gmail.com. We could use help with marketing, managing email, data analysis, and future quasi-studies. If you have a bit of change to spare (even a few pennies will help), please consider donating to the project. It takes a lot of time and energy. And bandwidth is expensive!
This sounds a little crazy, but your heat maps ______________. I wanna tell you about it…
We’d love to hear your story! Email us at matevaluebump@gmail.com.
Infrequently Asked Questions (IAQs)
I don't care about my relative mate value. I just want numbers. Sheer numbers. Where should I go?
Well, the world center of population is in India. See map. So to be the closest to the greatest number of people worldwide, that's your sweet spot.
Not helpful guys. I need numbers in a smaller space. I need population density stats!
Macau (China) has a population density of 18,534 people per square kilometer and a total population of 541,200. Monaco has a density of 16,923 people per square kilometer, but spread over only 33,000 people. Both are quite small places in terms of area, so you Casanovas out there may feel a bit crowded.
That leaves two big winners: Singapore with 7,148 people per square kilometer (5,076,700 total population) and Hong Kong with 6,349 people per square kilometer (7,003,700 total population). Added plus: English is extremely common in Singapore and fairly common in Hong Kong. Or if you're not happy with those options, check out a world population density map or ranked list of countries and independent territories.
We hear Vatican City is a pretty dense place, too. But good luck dating there. ;)