Love Island: A Perfect Match?
Love Island, the British reality TV show that keeps millions of people entertained for an hour every night showcases not only hot, steamy moments between men with chocolate abs and bombshell women as they look for love in a villa in Mallorca, but also a classic example of the “Stable Matching” problem. Every episode of this 8-week journey tests the bonds of each couple. With the introduction of new contestants, eliminations for the singles, and public viewer voting, you can bet to see the islanders’ preferences waver, as they choose to recouple. The question is, which perfect match will prove to be the final couple for the £50,000 prize?
Let’s take a look at the first episode, where each contestant couples up for the first time. The process is as follows: A man is introduced to the women, and if any woman fancies him, they will step forward. The man can then partner up with any woman, even if she is already coupled up. In telegraph.co.uk’s “Economics of Love Island”, they highlight a matching scenario where the man and woman that paired up were stable, but were not each other’s top choice.
Similarly, when Hugo made his entrance this summer, no women expressed interest in him, but he chose to partner up with Sharon, who was not any of the men’s first choice. This is known as a “girl-proposing Gale-Shapley Algorithm”, since men are choosing their pair after a woman “proposes” their interest.
Now, what if a new islander arrives at the villa? Well on Day 1, a new girl, Chloe was introduced to the villa. That means the preferences of the men have changed, a pair is now unstable, and an islander is at risk of being dumped. We find out in later episodes that all the men fancied Chloe the most, which means that she was number 1 on their preference list. As Chloe chose to couple with Aaron, his previous partner was left single and was dumped from the island. All the couples are still stable, since Chloe picked the man that she preferred the most, and no islanders mutually prefer the other over their current partner.
However, with the Casa Amor segment of the series, each of the six couples are now separated for a few days, and they are introduced to six new men and women that will challenge them to recouple. Each islander has the opportunity to bring back a new partner, leaving their old partner single. And that is just what Chloe and Toby did. After Casa Amor, Chloe coupled up with Dale, while Toby coupled up with Mary. This was an unstable match because Toby realized that he preferred Chloe more than Mary, his current partner, and Chloe felt the same way about Dale. Luckily for them, Mary also began to fancy Dale more than Toby, and Dale did the same. At the end of the week, Chloe and Toby coupled up once again, leading to another stable match.
As stated in lecture, it is more advantageous to go with your preference rather than strategizing to be coupled up with someone, as you might end up worse off. With over 50 recouplings this season, we can be sure to say that the islanders stayed true to their heart while maximizing their chance at the prize money.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/economics-love-island-game-theory-explains-coupling/
https://medium.com/@t8el/economics-of-love-island-584e648d42ee