A research paper Kippen,%20Rebecca_paper.pdf based on looking at 2482 marriages and what breaks them apart raises some serious questions about the scientific validity behind some of the major matchmakers.
In a recent interview Galen Buckwalter, chief scientist at eHarmony.com said “Age, in and of itself, is not a factor in compatibility.”
In actual fact, age is one of the biggest factors in what ends the marriages according to the study.
If either person smokes than it close to triples the chances of ending the marriage. ( Eharmony matches smokers to non smokers they also list a few other things that tend to lead to divorce.)
The same goes for drinking….
There are many other examples in that report based on 30 years of research into what creates unstable marriages. To date no site has wanted to submit their tests to scientific validation and even those that do are only showing 10 -20% better than chance of marriages forming, But you can get that kind of improvement by simply matching non smokers with non smokers and people with people in their age range.
