"We easily intercepted people at Café Venue, a local San Francisco café, and by using the new Tobii X1 Light Eye Tracker on a laptop, we quickly saw how they visually processed online dating profiles on two popular websites," said Sal Becerra, research director at AnswerLab. "In just eight hours, we were able to track nearly 40 participants, and we walked away with some great insights to share with both those interested in online dating and the online dating industry itself. Because the system is so portable and easy to use, we can take it almost anywhere to do high-quality eye-tracking research in the field."

The study included 39 participants, 18 female and 21 male, who each were interviewed before and after viewing dating profiles on both Match.com and eHarmony.com. From the gaze patterns collected, it was discovered that male subjects spend 65 percent more time viewing their potential partner's photo and 50 percent less time analyzing the profile overall, when compared with the gaze data of female subject.