How HugOrShrug Calculates Compatibility

Shared listings come first

Two profiles can be compared when both people have reacted to the same canonical listings. Reacting to a music service and reacting to an artist are different subjects. Total activity alone does not establish overlap.

The app uses current public preference reactions for its headline comparison. Never Tried and Don't Know are excluded from preference agreement. Private reactions and anonymous statistics are not used to expose an individual's taste to another member.

Agreement and shared curiosity

Two Hugs or two Shrugs on the same subject receive full agreement weight. Two Want to Try reactions receive a smaller weight of 0.6, because shared curiosity is different from shared experience. Hug paired with Want to Try receives 0.35; Shrug paired with Want to Try receives 0.15; Hug paired with Shrug receives zero.

The compatibility score is the average of those weights, expressed as a percentage. It is not a probability that two people will become friends. Shared likes, shared dislikes, shared curiosity and disagreements are also displayed separately so the number has context.

Why sample size matters

One identical reaction could produce a mathematically perfect average but would give very little information. The app withholds the headline score until there are at least three comparable reactions and shows the number of shared items beside it. Confidence labels remain early until ten shared opinions, develop at ten, become good at thirty and strong at a hundred.

Privacy and limitations

Profiles must be eligible for discovery and must not be blocked or inactive. Social discovery for users who declare an age under eighteen is kept disabled pending a dedicated safety review. Self-declared age is not age assurance. More shared reactions can make a comparison more informative, but the score does not measure values, trust, personality or the quality of a relationship.