The Role Of Linguistic Properties In Online Dating Communication – A Large-Scale Study Of Contact Initiation Messages

For people who look for a partner, online dating largely increases the pool of potential mates. At the same time, users of online dating platforms have to cope with a large number of approaches and, therefore, need to choose selectively who they decide to engage in a conversation with. Especially, since the costs of rejection are low on online dating platforms, it is a common strategy to spam others with superficial approaches. With this in mind, and in the absence of nonverbal cues, targets base their decision of whether or not to respond to a message on (a) their impression of the sender’s pictures, and (b) cues which they extract from the content of the message. The purpose of this study is to hypothesize on which linguistic properties of a message in computer-mediated communication may signal various qualities of its sender, to predict how those properties determine a target’s decision of whether to respond or to ignore an initial message. Employing the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) text analysis, relevant variables are operationalized from a corpus of 167,276 initial messages of an online dating platform. Regression analysis is performed in order to test the hypotheses. Results are discussed with respect to design implications for online dating platforms

Language in online dating texts: trait identification, homophily, and their effect on attraction

Research has indicated that online daters may pick up on language cues connected to personality traits in online dating profile texts, and act upon those cues. This research seeks to investigate the level of accuracy of detection of personality in dating profile texts, and the extent to which perceived or actual similarity of personality has an effect on attractiveness of the author. An online survey was conducted collecting the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) for each participant and text author, a peer-report TIPI score by participants for each text author, and an attractiveness rating on a Likert scale for each author. Participants correctly identified Extraversion, though the effect size was small. Contrary to the hypotheses, participants preferred texts when written by an author with a personality they perceived as dissimilar to their own, specifically in Openness and Conscientiousness, and no relationship was found between actual similarity of personality and attractiveness. Online daters may choose partners with complementary or desirable traits rather than similar traits, or other factors in attraction may be more salient in the initial stages of determining attraction

Single and searching: how older and younger adults seek romantic partners online

textDespite a growing population of single older adults, past research and theory on romantic relationship formation has primarily focused on younger adults. Online dating has become an increasingly prevalent context for both older and younger adults to form romantic relationships. Nonetheless, adults of different ages may have different motivations for seeking dating partners. Using a framework of agency and communion to synthesize disparate literatures on personal goals, evolutionary motivations, and socioemotional motivations across the lifespan, the current research focuses on age differences in self-presentations in 4000 online dating profiles sampled from two popular online dating websites. Themes in these profiles were identified using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software (LIWC; Pennebaker, Booth & Francis, 2007). Regression analyses revealed significant associations between age and word use. Older adults were more likely to use first person plural pronouns (e.g. we, us, our), reflecting a focus on connectedness as well as words associated with health and positive emotion. Younger adults were more likely to emphasize the self, using more first person pronouns and were more likely to use words associated with work and achievement. Results suggest younger adults focus on enhancing the “self” when seeking romantic partnership. Consistent with theories of adult development, older adults are more positive in their profiles and appear to focus more on the “self” as embedded in relationships.Human Development and Family Science

Old World, New Experiences: an Investigation of the Cognitive Complexity of Older Adults in an Online Dating Environment

This study seeks to add to the knowledge of cognitive complexity by examining its relationship with online dating amongst older adults in comparison to younger adults. Previous studies have indicated that individuals who score high in cognitive complexity produce better messages than those who don\u27t. The majority of the studies about cognitive complexity and message production has centered around children, adolescents, and young adults. There has been no research addressing the cognitive complexity of elderly individuals in particular in an online dating setting. The present study addresses this gap by investigating the cognitive complexity of older adults involved in online dating in comparison to the cognitive complexity of younger adults. Data were collected from online dating profiles and the results showed that older individuals were more cognitively complex than younger adults. There was no significant difference between the cognitive complexity of older women in comparison to older men. The result of this study could help the understanding of individuals\u27 cognition in a setting that is removed from the face-to-face environment. It could also help one\u27s understanding of their cognitive complexity through utilizing the Role Category Questionnaire (RCQ) which is different from the original intent of the questionnaire - to measure the amount of construct in other people excluding one\u27s self. This study increases our understanding of the display of cognitive complexity in an online dating environment amongst older adults and highlights how significantly different it is from the younger adults. Research and practice can benefit from more cognitive distinctions between age groups. Keywords: cognitive complexity, online dating, older adults dating

Why Youth (heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life

Part of the Volume on Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Social network sites like MySpace and Facebook serve as "networked publics." As with unmediated publics like parks and malls, youth use networked publics to gather, socialize with their peers, and make sense of and help build the culture around them. This article examines American youth engagement in networked publics and considers how properties unique to such mediated environments (e.g., persistence, searchability, replicability, and invisible audiences) affect the ways in which youth interact with one another. Ethnographic data is used to analyze how youth recognize these structural properties and find innovative ways of making these systems serve their purposes. Issues like privacy and impression management are explored through the practices of teens and youth participation in social network sites is situated in a historical discussion of youth's freedom and mobility in the United States

From Online to Offline: Presentations of Self and Partner Searching Techniques among Women in Turkey on Dating Sites

Online dating platforms (apps or websites) have become instruments that are increasingly used by women in their practices of looking for a partner for romantic and/or sexual purposes. This paper focuses on discussing women’s self-presentation (also called impression management) methods and their strategies for evaluating themselves as presented both offline and online within the context of habitus. To this end, field data were collected with the netnographic method on the dating site called “OkCupid”. Afterwards, 11 university-educated white-collar women who were users of this platform in Turkey were enrolled in a semi-structured in-depth interview. While dating sites have offered women new opportunities in the intimacy market within modern society, relationships that start online and continue offline may not provide the anticipated satisfaction among daters due to several structural and technical reasons. The results of our analysis indicate that firstly, this online platform creates the insatiable idea in the minds of daters that they will find a better partner candidate at any moment. Furthermore, it decreases the possibility that daters that like each other will make long-term investments in each other. Secondly, after the rationally-built presentation of the self on the online stage, the mystery which brought about the emotional attraction has been significantly removed from the offline stage

Implementasi Teori Penetrasi Sosial pada Pengguna Aplikasi Tinder

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed social behaviour in society. Especially in the process of building relationships with opposite sex, which is usually done face-to-face, is now turning online. This is the impact of the government's policy to limit large-scale social activities to prevent the development of the coronavirus. In 2020, the number of chat exchanges on the Tinder app increased by 23%. Nowadays people prefer to get to know others online before deciding to meet in person. Social Penetration Theory (TPS) can be used to analyse the process of communication and self-disclosure of an individual in building interpersonal relationships. This theory describes a person like an onion that has various layers in it because someone only provides general information in the early stages of a relationship then reveals more personal information when they get close and build trust. This research is different from previous work because it analyses TPS on Tinder application users during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study aims to review TPS on Tinder application users by testing the main assumptions of the theory in relationship development and self-disclosure. This study uses a qualitative approach. Data collection is done by searching for articles journals with keywords TPS and the use of Tinder application to build relationships. The results show that the self-disclosure mediated by digital technology can limit the general and personal information shared by its users. The limitation of it lies in the ability to read non-verbal messages. Gender factors influence how individuals build relationships in the early stages. Men tend to approach women aggressively using jokes or funny statements, while women rely more on subtle cues. Future research can focus on the communication of Tinder application users at different age ranges. This research is expected to be input for research on online communication, self-disclosure and relationship development

Implementasi Teori Penetrasi Sosial pada Pengguna Aplikasi Tinder

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed social behaviour in society. Especially in the process of building relationships with opposite sex, which is usually done face-to-face, is now turning online. This is the impact of the government's policy to limit large-scale social activities to prevent the development of the coronavirus. In 2020, the number of chat exchanges on the Tinder app increased by 23%. Nowadays people prefer to get to know others online before deciding to meet in person. Social Penetration Theory (TPS) can be used to analyse the process of communication and self-disclosure of an individual in building interpersonal relationships. This theory describes a person like an onion that has various layers in it because someone only provides general information in the early stages of a relationship then reveals more personal information when they get close and build trust. This research is different from previous work because it analyses TPS on Tinder application users during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study aims to review TPS on Tinder application users by testing the main assumptions of the theory in relationship development and self-disclosure. This study uses a qualitative approach. Data collection is done by searching for articles journals with keywords TPS and the use of Tinder application to build relationships. The results show that the self-disclosure mediated by digital technology can limit the general and personal information shared by its users. The limitation of it lies in the ability to read non-verbal messages. Gender factors influence how individuals build relationships in the early stages. Men tend to approach women aggressively using jokes or funny statements, while women rely more on subtle cues. Future research can focus on the communication of Tinder application users at different age ranges. This research is expected to be input for research on online communication, self-disclosure and relationship development

Linguistic expression and perception of personality in online dating texts and their effect on attraction

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.Online daters report difficulties, frustration and anxiety in conveying their desired impression of themselves and from their lack of ability in perceiving another dater’s personality accurately. There is a lack of research on how expression of personality traits in profiles impacts on perception and on assessments of attractiveness. This thesis aims to fill this gap by exploring the expression and perception of personality traits in online dating profile texts, and to examine whether textually expressed personality affects attractiveness. The first two studies employed a linguistic and content analysis approach to determine how personality was expressed in dating profiles across different dating platforms and a comparison creative story text. There was considerable variation in expression indicating that language may not be a reliable indicator of personality. A lens model approach, using Funder’s Realistic Accuracy Model, was taken in the third study where accuracy of personality perception was examined in two contexts to determine whether dating profiles provided more salient trait-related cues to personality. The linguistic and content cues utilised by judges in making personality assessments were investigated. While some accuracy of perception was possible for emotional stability in online dating profiles, it was context dependent and unreliable, and few cues were utilised accurately. The effects of actual and perceived personality, and similarity of personality, on attractiveness were investigated and had not been examined previously in this context. This research shows that actual traits and similarity only affect attraction when it is perceivable, whereas perceived traits and similarity can affect attraction without accurate perception. This thesis illustrates the complexity of accuracy of interpersonal perception in text, and how context drives a considerable amount of the variation in achievement of accuracy. Additionally, the results offer some practical implications for online daters

Online dating in a South African context : a psychological study of the persona profile

Little is known about online dating relationships, or the online dating persona that intentionally forms and develops interpersonal relationships through online matchmaking services. Online dating relationships are becoming more prevalent, especially in South Africa. However, research studies focussing on online dating relationships seems to be lacking. Hence, a scientific psychological enquiry into online dating relationships, and more specifically the online dating persona, is indicated. Focussing on 100 online dating members from DatingBuzz, this comparative research study investigated online dating relationships and the online dating persona. More specifically, this study examined, first, online dating relationships specifically within the South African context compared to online dating relationships internationally; and second, the South African online dating persona. This was done by creating a profile focussing on (a) sociodemographic characteristics, (b) personality characteristics, (c) level of emotional intelligence and, (d) life effectiveness skills. A quasi-comparative research design was used with a non-probability, non-random sample of convenience. The realised sample for this research was 100 participants (N=100), with the total sample (n=100) reporting on online dating relationships and 67 participants (n=67) reporting on the online dating persona. The online matchmaking service, DatingBuzz, consented to post an advertisement for research participation. Using an Internet-based questionnaire with preset response categories in a Likert type format, data collection continued consecutively for six months in 2005. Instruments included (a) a set of self-constructed questions assessing online dating relationships and the sociodemographic characteristics of the online dating persona, (b) Sauciers’ 40 Mini-marker Set to examine the Big Five personality traits, (c) the 33-item EIS scale to investigate emotional intelligence and, (d) the LEQ – H to examine life effectiveness skills. The data were statistically analysed using the SAS programme and included descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA) in terms of gender, age, relationship status, geographical location and relationship type. Consistent with previous findings, this research study found comparisons between South African and international online dating relationships. Looking at the online dating persona profile, significant findings pertaining to sociodemographic traits, Big Five personality traits, level of emotional intelligence and life effectiveness skills. These preliminary findings are discussed in relations to methodological and research issues.Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2008.Psychologyunrestricte