Tinder: True Love or a Nightmare?

The computer first played matchmaker in the late 1950s. Data would have been fed into the system, and after some data crunching, it would spit out a match based on common interests. Today’s dating sites, such as eHarmony.com, PlentyOfFish, and Match.com are reminiscent of the earliest days of online dating - they rely on algorithms to pair potential matches based on shared interests. With the advent of mobile dating apps such as Tinder, of which I will examine in-depth in my paper, the ability for geo-location, which allows users to “see” other users that are nearby their location, has opened new doors. No longer do users have to rely on pre-determined computer algorithms to find potential suitors. Now, if they find another user within their radius all they have to do is swipe right. If the user they are interested in swipes right as well they are matched and can start messaging each other instantly. Tinder has become a cultural phenomenon with today’s young adults. Although some critics of Tinder slam it as superficial and view it strictly as a hook-up platform, it is much more. In today’s increasingly interconnected society, Tinder caters to young millennials by fulfilling their desires of finding people outside of their social circles for dating. According to the Pew Research Center, there are more singles under the age of 25 than ever before. Online dating apps have transformed the way young adults under 25 seek out relationships with one another, as an estimated one-in-five 18 to 24 year olds (22%) reported using online dating apps versus only 5% 2 in 2013.1 Tinder is packaged in an easy-to-use platform with a shiny bow on top that satisfies instant gratification with the ability to sift through tens upon tens, even hundreds of potential dating prospects

Reduce Uncertainty of Online Potential Mates: Employing Signalling Theory

The online dating environment is full of uncertainties, and thus online daters use various searchable and experiential cues to determine whether online potential partners are in line with their expectations. Uncertainties caused by information asymmetry between dating parties are likely to influence their predicted outcome value judgment. To reduce the uncertainty of online mating, we propose a research model based on signalling theory to examine how two evaluative approach (the trait-evaluation and live-interaction approach) influence the level of online mate uncertainty and the predicted outcome value judgment of online daters. In addition, we also examine the moderating effect of perceived physical attractiveness on the relationship between online mates’ levels of uncertainty and the perceived outcome value judgment. The contributions of two evaluative approach on online dating are also discussed in this study

Is Virtual Marriage Acceptable? A Psychological Study Investigating The Role of Ambiguity Tolerance and Intimacy Illusion in Online Dating among Adolescents and Early Adults

Marriage is one of the most important topics in the education field since life in this world is structured by interaction among families and between families and other social institutions. Dissatisfaction and unsustainability of marriage have led the urgency of premarital education in various countries. The problem is that the spread of virtual reality has made marriage itself to become more complex and experience reinterpretation and reconfiguration, moreover with the emergence of new kind of marriage in the digital era, i.e. virtual marriage. Everybody who has observed, known, or even tried, certainly asks the question, “Could (or: should) I accept virtual marriage?” . This study was aimed to investigate the role of tolerance of ambiguity and illusion of intimacy in online dating in predicting the acceptance of virtual marriage. There were 420 adolescents and young adults (212 males, 208 females; Mage=21.10 years old, SDage=1.459 years; 338 students, 82 employees or entrepreneurs) in the Greater Jakarta, Indonesia, participated in this study. It was found that the acceptance was not predicted by the ambiguity tolerance, but by the illusion of intimacy in online dating. The psychometric issues, substantive discussion, and recommendation are presented at the end of this article. The trend of virtual marriage should not be allowed to roll away, by autopilot, without loaded by strategies in designing an online game as one of the pivotal educational technologies that needs to shape appropriate character and attitude for it

Investigating the association between mating-relevant self-concepts and mate preferences through a data-driven analysis of online personal descriptions

Research on mate preference have often taken a theory-driven approach; however, such an approach can constrain the range of possible predictions. As a result, the research community may inadvertently neglect traits that are potentially important for human mate choice if current theoretical models simply do not identify them. Here, we address this limitation by using a data-driven approach to investigate mating-relevant self-concepts (i.e., what individuals believe to be attractive about themselves). Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA; a clustering method developed in computer science) and a large sample of written descriptions from online personal advertisements (N = 7,973), we identify 25 common topics that individuals use when advertising themselves. Men were more likely to advertise education/status, while women were more likely to discuss being honest/nurturing and caring for pets. We also assessed patterns of universal and compatible mate preferences for these 25 topics by collecting ratings of desirability from a separate group of 100 participants on a subset of these profiles (N = 468). Participants were also asked to write a personal description of themselves as if they were writing for a dating website. Overall, both male and female profiles that discussed outdoor activities, and music/art were rated as more desirable, while women that discussed a healthy lifestyle and friends/family were also rated as more desirable. Both men and women who discussed sex or mentioned being a parent were rated as less desirable. When comparing the topic probabilities between profiles collected online and those written by the raters, we found that raters preferred profiles that were more similar to their own, particularly for topics to do with being outgoing and agreeable

Language Use and Impression Formation:The Effects of Linguistic Cues in Online Dating Profiles

Online daters: check je taal en spelling, goed taalgebruik maakt aantrekkelijk Promovenda Tess van der Zanden onderzocht hoe het taalgebruik in onlinedatingprofielen van elkaar verschilt en hoe dit indrukken over de aantrekkelijkheid van de profieleigenaar beïnvloedt. Ze vergeleek daarbij 12.000 datingprofielen en bevroeg online daters voor haar empirische onderzoek waarop zij op 22 oktober promoveert. Van der Zanden onderzocht eerst de fase van profielconstructie waarin gebruikers een profiel(tekst) creëren om zichzelf te presenteren. Vervolgens de fase van profielverwerking waarin observanten profielen van anderen bekijken en de informatie hierop verwerken. En tot slot de impressievormingsfase waarin lezers indrukken over profieleigenaren vormen op basis van die verwerking. Originaliteit en taligheid scoren Het lijkt erop dat het taalgebruik van daters die een vaste relatie zoeken zowel bewust als onbewust beïnvloed wordt door dit relatiedoel. Onbewust door meer naar zichzelf te verwijzen (bijv. “ik”) en bewust door, strategisch, bepaalde persoonlijkheidskenmerken te noemen die belangrijk worden geacht in een betrouwbare relatie.  Eigenaren van profielen die hoog scoorden op tekstoriginaliteit werden gezien als intelligenter en grappiger, wat er vervolgens voor zorgde dat ze ook als aantrekkelijker (datemateriaal) werden beoordeeld. Dat lukte vooral als meer (concrete) persoonlijke informatie onthulden en metaforen gebruikten. Taalfouten hebben invloed als profielfoto gemiddeld aantrekkelijk is Taalfouten hebben effect op de indrukken die mensen vormen over date-intenties en de persoonlijkheid en aantrekkelijkheid van de profieleigenaren. Dat laat zien dat taalfouten dienen als een belangrijk gegeven voor indrukvorming. Maar niet het enige. Want hoewel taalfouten een negatief effect hebben op fysieke aantrekkelijkheid als een profiel een gemiddeld aantrekkelijke foto bevat, is dat niet het geval bij een aantrekkelijke of onaantrekkelijke foto is. Van der Zanden: ‘In het geval van datingprofielen waar zo weinig gegevens beschikbaar zijn kan elk stukje informatie al grote gevolgen hebben op hoe je persoonlijkheid of aantrekkelijkheid wordt beoordeeld. Op datingplatforms waar de tekst een belangrijk onderdeel is van het profiel, kan ik online daters aanraden om bij het schrijven van hun profiel niet alleen na te denken over wat ze over zichzelf schrijven, maar ook hoe ze de tekst schrijven. Zo kunnen taalfouten het best voorkomen worden en wordt een originele tekst met bijvoorbeeld metaforen juist aangeraden.

Investigating the association between mating-relevant self-concepts and mate preferences through a data-driven analysis of online personal descriptions

Research on mate preference have often taken a theory-driven approach; however, such an approach can constrain the range of possible predictions. As a result, the research community may inadvertently neglect traits that are potentially important for human mate choice if current theoretical models simply do not identify them. Here, we address this limitation by using a data-driven approach to investigate mating-relevant self-concepts (i.e., what individuals believe to be attractive about themselves). Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA; a clustering method developed in computer science) and a large sample of written descriptions from online personal advertisements (N = 7,973), we identify 25 common topics that individuals use when advertising themselves. Men were more likely to advertise education/status, while women were more likely to discuss being honest/nurturing and caring for pets. We also assessed patterns of universal and compatible mate preferences for these 25 topics by collecting ratings of desirability from a separate group of 100 participants on a subset of these profiles (N = 468). Participants were also asked to write a personal description of themselves as if they were writing for a dating website. Overall, both male and female profiles that discussed outdoor activities, and music/art were rated as more desirable, while women that discussed a healthy lifestyle and friends/family were also rated as more desirable. Both men and women who discussed sex or mentioned being a parent were rated as less desirable. When comparing the topic probabilities between profiles collected online and those written by the raters, we found that raters preferred profiles that were more similar to their own, particularly for topics to do with being outgoing and agreeable

Love at First Touch: How Swiping vs. Typing Changes Online Dating Decision-Making

Online dating is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. Due to its increasing popularity, various dimensions of online dating have been studied in recent years. However, no research has explored how the type of digital platforms used impacts online dating. In this research, we investigate how the use of different platforms (computers vs. smartphones) can influence customers’ decision-making process in the context of online dating. Through multiple studies, we demonstrate that while using their computers (vs. smartphones) to evaluate dating profiles, customers will prioritize the inner attributes of the person (e.g., personality and compatibility). Moreover, the effect of device type on customers’ online dating decision-making is moderated by customers’ gender. Finally, our results also exhibit a significant moderated mediation effect in that the device used by female participants moderates the indirect effect of inner attributes of dating profiles on customers evaluations through perceived psychological closeness. We further manipulated perceived psychological distance to dating profiles for females which reveals that when females use smartphones to look at dating profiles, the effect of psychological distance on participants\u27 rating is only significant when the profiles have attractive (vs. average) inner attributes. This research contributes to the literature on the use of computers vs. smartphones and the literature on gender differences in online dating. It also has important implications for online dating companies on how to design their websites and mobile applications more suited to customers’ preferences while also considering customers’ gender

Perceptions of Masculinity and Femininity in Online Dating Profiles of Men: Intersections With Race

Many people currently find a dating partner online, which at many websites involves viewing the profiles of several users and deciding which to pursue. Considerable social scientific research has studied this new way of seeking dating partners. The purpose of this thesis study was to examine how people believe online dating site users would perceive a man on these sites based on the profile characteristics mentioned regarding femininity and masculinity in combination with a race-based filter (Black or white). These variables were manipulated within a Qualtrics survey with four vignette hypothetical profiles (a white man with a masculine profile, a Black man with a masculine profile, a white man with a feminine profile, and a Black man with a feminine profile). The participants were obtained from three major sources: students in certain sociology classes at a Midwestern public university who were offered extra credit to take the survey, a post made on my social media page, and MTurk, a survey sharing site through Amazon. Each participant was shown one profile at random and told to imagine that the profile they received was posted on a dating website and to answer the questions that followed by thinking of how both heterosexual women and gay men would perceive the profile (one at a time). A final section included questions to measure how the participants would respond to the target. I analyzed those data with multiple Independent t-tests, two ANOVA tests, and one repeated measures-mixed ANOVA. Participants perceived masculine targets as being more sexually attractive and as desired more for a short-term relationship than feminine targets, whereas the feminine target was perceived as having higher friendship attraction than the masculine target. The research also showed that the masculine and Black target was seen as more trustworthy, more likely to be contacted by the users, and more desirable for long-term relationships than the feminine and Black target, whereas the feminine and white target was perceived as more trustworthy, more likely to be contacted by the users, and more desirable for long-term relationships than the masculine and white target. This study will help us understand how people expect online dating site users would judge male users based on the male user’s levels of femininity/masculinity co-constructed alongside race