Exploring the influences of profile perceptions and different pick-up lines on dating outcomes on tinder: An online experiment
Department
School of Communication and Media
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-2020
Embargo Period
10-28-2021
Abstract
Online dating is more popular than ever, and Tinder has established a new platform for online daters to communicate. The current study examined how dating profiles and pick-up lines influenced young heterosexual adults' dating intention on Tinder. The study recruited a total of 237 young heterosexual adults to participate in a 2 (profile gender) x 2 (message humor) x 2 (message compliment) online experiment. In the experiment, participants viewed a Tinder profile of their opposite sex and one of the four manipulated pick-up lines. The results showed that perceived attractiveness and perceived positive attributes (e.g., kindness, intelligence) of the person in the dating profile were significant predictors of both long-term and short-term dating intentions in the overall sample. Among men, the dating profile's perceived attractiveness was the sole predictor of long-term and short-term dating intentions. The dating profile's perceived positive attributes were a significant predictor of both long-term and short-term dating intentions among women. More importantly, message humor and message compliment had significant interaction effects on both long-term and short-term dating intentions among women. We discuss the contributions and implications to research on online dating research, evolutionary social psychology, and hyperpersonal perspective.
Journal Title
Computers in Human Behavior
Journal ISSN
0747-5632
Volume
117
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1016/j.chb.2020.106667