Efficiency of using Tinder to meet potential long-term committed relationship partners or acquire one-night stands

Hook, Line and Sinker: Do Tinder Matches and Meet Ups Lead to One-Night Stands? Trond Viggo Grøntvedt, Mons Bendixen, Ernst O. Botnen, Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair. Evolutionary Psychological Science, November 18 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-019-00222-z

Abstract: Several recent papers have established a link between personality and Tinder use, particularly with regards to sociosexuality and motivations for use. Following up our recent publication on dating apps and the studies linking Tinder and sociosexuality, we provide a more detailed investigation of the efficiency of using Tinder to acquire one-night stands or meet potential long-term committed relationship partners. Using self-reported data from 269 students (62% women), we find that a very large number of matches are required for a relative small number of meet ups, and result in a very limited number of hook-ups or potential romantic partner meetings. Merely 20% of the Tinder users in the sample have had one-night stands following Tinder use, and the majority of these only had one extra partner. The primary individual difference predictor of achieving casual sex using Tinder is unrestricted sociosexual attitudes, and this also predicts fewer potential romantic partner meetings.

Keywords: Sociosexuality Tinder Casual sex Committed relationships

Discussion

Tinder is an app that promises to ease the search and acquisition of new romantic mates, both long-term, and short-term.Further, in the media moralistic worries that Tinder is causing a spread of social disease have been aired (Rhode Island Government 2015). The current study investigates to what degree Tinder use actually results in more sexual partnersand romantic opportunities based on number of matches andmeet ups.

Contrary to expectations, number of one-night stands out-side Tinder use showed only a weak positive association withnumber of one-night stands following Tinder. When control-ling for length of use and age, there was no effect of one-nightstands outside of Tinder use on one-night stands followingTinder. In the final model, controlling for sociosexuality,matches and meet ups, the effect was actually negative.Botnen et al. (2018) and Sevi (2019a) suggested that datingapps such as Tinder are merely a new arena for evolved short-term sexual behavior, rather than a facilitator of new sexual behaviors. Given the current results, we suggest that Tinder indeed seems to provide new sexual opportunities, but mostlyfor a very small minority. Of the 54 participants who reported one-night stands following Tinder use, only 7 individuals reported no one-night stands outside of Tinder use. However,the general claim still holds for the majority of Tinder users.For those who are most successful outside of Tinder, Tinder adds few extra short-term sexual encounters. A small numberof individuals who are unsuccessful in more traditional datingarenas may turn to Tinder in order to have short-term sexualrelations. Based on the ratio of matches to meetings to sexualencounters, Tinder may not be described as a sex app thatlargely increases the number of one-night stands and hook-ups, at least not in our sample. Despite this, Tinder, as a newarena for mating effort, may still be considered highly efficientfrom an evolutionary perspective. There are almost no costsinvolved apart from the time spent, and one may indicateinterest in a multitude of partners by swiping right in a veryshort time. Most meetings do not lead to one-night stands.There is a potential mismatch between cues used to decideto swipe right and the short-term attractiveness perceived ina face-to-face meeting. Information provided by the short bi-ography, picture, and age are highly relevant; however, otherevolutionary relevant cues for assessing casual sex attractive-ness are only available in a physical meeting. Further, andreflecting the above, individuals who are efficient in tradition-al mating arenas, may therefore acquire more partners through displaying the kind of personality (Schmitt and Shackelford 2008), confidence, physical bodily (Provost et al.2008), and facial features (Li and Kenrick2006;Littleetal.2002)andmaybe even voice cues (Puts2005) that are attractive in short-term matings face-to-face rather than via non-organic, electronic Tinder profiles.

There is an effect of meet ups on one-night stands, but notof matches over and above the effect of meet ups. In addition,both age and sociosexual attitudes consistently predicted number of one-night stands following Tinder. One might argue thatswiping right and hence indicating interest in a potential partner on an app is less time consuming and that one avoids the more distressing rejections than when actively engaging withpeople in real life. However, those who succeed in traditional hook up arenas, in physical interactions, where both partiesare in the mood and with some degree of intoxication, willperhaps not succeed more by adding Tinder. Swiping and searching on Tinder may have limited effect, and as such may not be considered cost efficient. A large number of matches are required in order to achieve a sexual encounter.

This challenges the suggestion that Tinder is a sex app that iscontributing to a general increase in the amount of casual sexand social diseases in society and number of sexual partners for users directly (Rhode Island Governmen t2015).Tinder is neither a very efficient way of meeting a long-termcommitted romantic partner. Women, more than men, meet morepeople with an interest for potential long-term committed rela-tionships. Parallel to other recent findings of sociosexuality andTinder use (Hallam et al. 2018; Sevietal.2018), the statistica leffect of sex on number of meet ups with the interest for a long-term committed romantic relationship was partly accounted forby the attitudes component of the sociosexual orientation inven-tory. A careful interpretation of the effect of the attitudes com-ponent of SOI needs to consider the sex-differentiated nature ofsociosexuality (Kennair et al.2016). The findings support that individual differences in sociosexuality attitudes and sex differ-ences overlap, with women being less short-term oriented ingeneral and also report greater interest in long-term rather thanshort-term encounters. There was also an overlap in what factorsinfluence meeting someone for either a long-term committedromantic relationship or one-night stands. Most likely, this isdue to most people being interested to some degree in bothshort-term as well as long-term relationships (Gangestad and Simpson2000). This resonates with the motives reported by Botnen et al. (2018).T

here was a positive association between one-night stands and meetings with an interest in a long-term committed romantic relationship. Possible explanations of this finding arethat users of Tinder have multiple, non-mutually exclusivereasons for app use, and that some relationships develop from what were initially one-night stands. Unrestricted sociosexual attitudes increased number of one-night stands; however, the effect of SOI-attitudes was negative for committed relationships. These findings were robust. There was a tendency thatthe desire component of sociosexuality also increased one-night stands, but this effect was accounted for by number ofmeet ups and short-term mate value.

Short-term mate value (physical attractiveness) predictsnumber of one-night stands following Tinder. Nevertheless,the directionality is unresolved. Possibly, the effect is bidirec-tional: higher mate value may have increased the number ofone-night stands, and more hook-ups may have resulted inhigher self-perceived mate value


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Check also Rosenfeld M. (2018) Are Tinder and Dating Apps Changing Dating and Mating in the USA? In: Van Hook J., McHale S., King V. (eds) Families and Technology. National Symposium on Family Issues, vol 9, pp 103-117. Springer, September 21 2018. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/10/are-tinder-dating-apps-changing-dating.html

And The Association Between Mating Performance, Marital Status, and the Length of Singlehood: Evidence From Greece and China. Menelaos Apostolou, Yan Wang. Evolutionary Psychology, November 13, 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/11/a-considerable-proportion-of-people-in.html

And Do Women Really Desire Casual Sex? Analysis of a Popular Adult Online Dating/Liaison Site, by Michelle Escasa-Dorne and William Jankowiak. In Focality and Extension in Kinship. Essays in memory of Harold W Scheffler. Warren Shapiro (Ed.). Jun 2018. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/06/do-women-really-desire-casual-sex.html