Women strongly prefer a highly educated potential partner in dating app Tinder; men have not aversion to a highly educated partner; & there is no preference for a partner with a similar education level

Are Men Intimidated by Highly Educated Women? Undercover on Tinder. Brecht Neyt et al. Economics of Education Review, July 22 2019, 101914. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.101914

Highlights
• Women on Tinder are more selective than men on Tinder.
• Women on Tinder have a preference for highly educated men.
• Men on Tinder are not intimidated by highly educated women.
• On Tinder, preferences for educational assortative mating are absent.

Abstract: In this study, we examine the impact of an individual's education level on her/his mating success on the mobile dating app Tinder. To do so, we conducted a field experiment on Tinder in which we collected data on 3,600 profile evaluations. In line with previous research on mating preferences from multiple fields, our results indicate a heterogeneous effect of education level by gender: while women strongly prefer a highly educated potential partner, this hypothesis is rejected for men. In contrast with recent influential studies from the field of economics, we do not find any evidence that men would have an aversion to a highly educated potential partner. Additionally, in contrast with most previous research – again from multiple fields – we do not find any evidence for preferences for educational assortative mating, i.e. preferring a partner with a similar education level.

Keywords: Returns to educationMating successAssortative matingDating appsTinder