Study: Tinder Reinforces Primal Mating Behavior

According to a new study, popular dating app Tinder is causing users to revert back to basic mating urges and habits.

The Independent reports that a team of psychologists at the University of Aberdeen have discovered that men and women that use Tinder often display primal mating behavior. The report also highlighted the vast differences in how men and women use Tinder, as men reportedly based most of their Tinder choices on appearance while women favored intelligence, career prospects, and stability when selecting matches on the app.

Dr. Mirjam Brady-Van den Bos, a psychology lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, said that these results actually mimic ancient survival tactics studied by scientists for years.“Our research demonstrates that we haven’t really changed in all those millennia of evolution,” she said. “Tinder is seen as a sophisticated but artificial way of meeting prospective partners. What we’ve shown though is that the way people search for potential dates is in line with what evolutionary theories on human mating choices would predict.”

Dr. Brady-Van den Bos also discussed the issue of “McDonaldisation” of dating due to Tinder, with users expecting instant results which may affect their decisions when swiping on the app. Van den Bos says that this is not unlike the expectations set on a fast food chain for immediate and satisfactory returns: “Accepting that this ‘McDonaldisation’ of romantic partners mirrors real life is hard – but it does. People are reverting to human nature much more than they realize.”

Tinder states that approximately 1.6 billion swipes are made on the app each day across 190 countries. The report also discovered that female Tinder users were much more suspicious of possible fake profiles. “This potential for abuse of trust was brought up a lot, mainly by female participants,” said Dr. Brady-Van den Bos, “They weren’t necessarily first-hand experiences, but they told stories of people on Tinder dating someone who turned out to be a ‘catfish.’”