Love me Tinder: Untangling emerging adults’ motivations for using the dating application Tinder

Brozovsky & Petricek conducted a user experiment to investigate how users perceived the algorithms. Random, mean, and user-user algorithm were tested. Two lists of recommendations were shown to users originating from two algorithms. Between all algorithms, user-user outperformed other algorithms. The mean algorithm, however, performed surprisingly well. The random algorithm performed expectedly poorly.

They use a survey among Dutch emerging adults to investigate the different motivations to use Tinder

Brozovsky & Petricek showed in their work that collaborative filtering algorithms, like user-user or item-item are a favorable option for online matchmaking. In general, these algorithms outperform commonly used mean algorithm employed by dating websites and should be considered. Another indication to use collaborative filtering methods is how users perceived the presented algorithms. The acceptance of collaborative filtering was the highest for user-user.

Tinder is a relative new kind of dating app and is currently one of the most favorites. Tinder has gotten itself a reputation and is often called the sex-app. The app is one of the first dating apps that is specifically created as a smartphone app, and not just as an extension of an already existing dating site.

Tinder uses personal information of an individual’s Facebook account to create matches. This is information like age, friends, interests, gender etc. The users of the app also must give information about what they are looking for in terms of gender, vicinity and age. The app also uses the GPS function to find matches in close range. Users of the app can base their decision about a potential partner based upon the profile picture and their interests.

Previous research has stated that users of dating websites often have a diverse set of motivations. However, it is still unclear what kind of reasons emerging adults have for apps like Tinder. Other literature shows that motivations for dating websites can be shared across platforms, while other motivations can be unique to certain platforms.

There are different kind of motivations to use Tinder. The 3 main categories are, physical gratification, social gratification and psychosocial gratification. These three categories fall under the Uses and Gratifications theory and can explain why adolescents are using Tinder. However, the main goal of this study is to identify specific motivations of emerging adults who use Tinder.

The survey was distributed among the network of students who used their social media account to distribute it. A total of 266 people participated in the study. The survey was designed to gain insights into the different categories of the Uses and Gratification theory.

The study found that emerging adults often use tinder for excitement and because of the novelty of the app. Tinder is also more often used to establish steady relationships than to find a sexual encounter. The study also found that overall gender and age can account for differences among the motivations. Therefore, motivations to use the app can change when the user gets older. The findings of the study suggest that the outcomes of new technologies like tinder will be highly related to the goals of the users. This study has been the first one that shows that datum me Tinder should not only be seen as a hookup app, but as a tool that is able to satisfy different kind of needs among emerging adults.

Screened Intimacies: Tinder and the Swipe Logic

David and Cambre (2016) scrutinize the swipe feature of the dating application Tinder. In two parts David and Cambre describe, firstly, sociotechnical dynamics when users navigate the user interface of Tinder and the influence of the swipe feature. Secondly, the authors investigate how the swipe disrupts intimacy of online dating.