If you’ve ever looked for love (or a hookup for the night) on Tinder, chances are you’ve come across your fair share of liars, players, and generally shady people. But is everyone on the dating platform really that untrustworthy? According to a new survey, most people think so!
- Everyone is skeptical of Tinder, it seems. The new data, published in Computers in Human Behavior, found that of 223 people surveyed, an overwhelming majority believed that people on Tinder aren’t to be trusted, especially in comparison to users of other sites like Facebook or the dating app Parship, which was used in the study. Another 108 participants checked out the profiles of users of each of those sites and replicated the earlier results.
- How did the app get such a bad reputation? The researchers behind the study were curious as to whether “being associated with an online dating platform with such a reputation might have an impact on how an individual is socially perceived.” It looks like their answer was a big yes!
- Research shows that Tinder isn’t actually that bad. As bad as everyone seems to think Tinder is, the reality is that it’s a mixed bag and there are some genuine people on the app that are really looking for a relationship. Seriously, science proves it! However, it seems like perception really is greater than reality here because it certainly doesn’t seem that way!
- You can’t judge a book by its cover. To be fair, it’s not exactly easy to get an accurate representation of what someone’s truly like just by looking at their dating app profile or even interact with him via direct message for a few minutes. However, that doesn’t stop us from making assumptions. “Our results converge with previous studies showing that individuals form rapid and effortless impressions about other individuals on the basis of minimal information,” the report stated.
- At the end of the day, finding love is hard wherever you look. There’s no guarantee that the person you meet on an online dating app, at the bar, or even in your office is going to be trustworthy, and using a particular app or method to find love isn’t necessarily an indicator of that person’s quality. The important thing is to be smart and keep your eyes open for any red flags.
[H/T PsyPost]
