Characterization of User Online Dating Behavior and Preference on a Large Online Dating Site Peng Xia 1 , Kun Tu 2 , Bruno Ribeiro 2 , Hua Jiang 3 , Xiaodong Wang 3 , Cindy Chen 1 , Benyuan Liu 1 , and Don Towsley 2 1 Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Massachusetts, USA 2 Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts, USA 3 Product Division, Baihe.com, Beijing, China Abstract. Online dating sites have become popular platforms for peo- ple to look for romantic partners, providing an unprecedented level of access to potential dates that is otherwise not available through tradi- tional means. Characterization of the user online dating behavior helps us to obtain a deep understanding of their dating preference and make bet- ter recommendations on potential dates. In this paper we study the user online dating behavior and preference using a large real-world dateset from a major online dating site in China. In particular, we characterize the temporal behavior, message send and reply behavior of users, study how users online dating behaviors correlate with various user attributes, and investigate how users’ actual online dating behaviors deviate from their stated preferences. Our results show that on average a male sends out more messages but receives fewer messages than a female. A female is more likely to be contacted but less likely to reply to a message than a male. The number of messages that a user sends out and receives per week quickly decreases with time, especially for female users. Most mes- sages are replied to within a short time frame with a median delay of around 9 hours. Many of the user messaging behaviors align with notions in social and evolutionary psychology: males tend to look for younger fe- males while females place more emphasis on the socioeconomic status (e.g., income, education level) of a potential date. The geographic dis- tance between two users and the photo count of users play an important role in their dating behavior. We show that it is important to differen- tiate between users’ true preferences and random selection. Some user behaviors in choosing attributes in a potential date may largely be a result of random selection. We also find that while both males and fe- males are more likely to reply to users whose attributes come closest to the stated preferences of the receivers, there is significant discrepancy between a user’s stated dating preference and his/her actual online dat- ing behavior. We further characterize how users actual dating behavior deviate from their stated preference. These results can provide valuable guidelines to the design of a recommendation engine for potential dates. Keywords: online dating, user behavior analysis, behavior and attributes correlation