The effectiveness of Tinder and Hinge is hard to judge without access to their data. But now researchers are creating a free alternative with full transparency. The lawsuit crystallised an ocean of dissatisfaction with the apps, and stimulated a new round of debate over their potential to harm mental health, but for scientists who study romantic relationships it sidestepped the central issue: do they work?
Does using the apps increase your chances of finding your soulmate, or not? The answer is, nobody knows. In the US, where uptake has been greatest since their advent, first as websites, about 30 years ago, more than half of all heterosexual couples — and an even higher proportion of gay couples — now meet online, according to Stanford University sociologist Michael Rosenfeld. Europe, slower to catch on, still has an estimated 80 million users. Rosenfeld, who tracks US dating trends, says that online dating has steadily replaced traditional ways of finding mates, through friends, work or places of worship.
The recent and real dating drought is more likely to be a temporary blip caused by the pandemic, Rosenfeld says, which made it nearly impossible for people to follow up online connections by meeting face-to-face. But even if online dating is now a permanent fixture of our social landscape, research is lacking on how happy or durable the couples are that meet that way, or on whether the apps are presenting users with the most suitable candidates.
One recent US study showed that people who met their spouse online reported having slightly less satisfying and stable marriages than those who met them offline, but this could be explained by factors other than the online dating experience itself, such as the lingering stigma associated with meeting people that way, and the typically greater geographical distance between the two halves of the couple. Meanwhile, dating platforms promising new and better ways to unite kindred spirits have been proliferating.
Some claim to be able to match couples on the basis of their brain activity or facial expressions. What we do know, from online forums where people discuss their experiences, is that for every couple united online there is plenty of disappointment.
