Data collection is now complete. Please check back in approximately one month for a summary of the research results.

Research on how people meet via the internet is in its infancy. We hope that the information we obtain from the survey you just completed will help us to learn more about the role that web-based personal ads play in people's efforts to find and meet potential romantic partners.

We hope to learn several things from people's responses to this survey. First, we are interested in identifying the reasons that people turn to personal ads on the internet as a means of meeting potential dating partners and what they perceive to be the advantages and disadvantages associated with this means of meeting potential partners as compared with other, more "traditional" means. Second, we hope to identify the kinds of interactions/relationships people typically seek when they post or respond to personal ads on the web (e.g., a casual friendship, a long-term romance, or someone to talk to, etc.). In our own informal research on this topic, (i.e. browsing personal ads web pages), we have noticed a remarkable variety in the kinds of relational opportunities that individuals offer in their ads. Third, we are interested in exploring participant's perceptions concerning other's attitudes toward the use of the internet as a means of finding potential dating partners. Informal conversations with others (some of whom report having met dating partners over the internet) suggest that the general public takes a somewhat disparaging view of those who seek (and possibly find) dating partners through this non-traditional means. We are interested in determining the extent to which people who actually use the web for this purpose perceive such negative stereotypes and whether/how such perceived prejudice affects how open they are about their use of the internet as a means of finding possible partners.

We see our research on this topic as a work in progress. We expect that the findings from this survey will raise additional questions and point to other interesting avenues of investigation concerning internet romance. In fact, we expect that the information gathered in the present survey will lend itself to the design of future surveys that will allow us to explore internet relationships in more depth.

We would like to thank you for participating in this survey. Your responses will be very helpful to us as we begin our research in this area. We appreciate your time and input. If you have any questions about this research or would like to provide feedback concerning this survey (including questions we should add or issues we should explore in future research), please direct your comments to Dr. Susan D. Boon in the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary at sdboon@ucalgary.ca or (403) 220 5564.

A summary of the results of this survey will be posted at this site approximately one month after completion of data collection. Please check back with us then to see what we have learned about how and why people meet online.