Dating hasn’t exactly inspired confidence lately. If it feels harder to care, harder to invest, and easier to stay detached, new data suggests that reaction is becoming the norm rather than a personal failing.
A recent survey reported by Newsweek found that nearly half of the women polled say they’ve emotionally withdrawn from dating. The findings come from a MyIQ survey of 2,418 women ages 18 to 45. According to the report, 74 percent said romantic uncertainty now feels standard, and almost half said that uncertainty led them to disengage emotionally from dating altogether.
That uncertainty sits at the center of modern dating culture, particularly online. That uncertainty sits at the center of modern dating culture, particularly online. Dating apps sold efficiency. What they delivered was confusion at scale. Women describe an endless scroll of low-effort matches who resist clarity, while men report long stretches of silence or no traction at all. Everyone’s frustrated.
Why Nearly Half of Women Say They’ve Emotionally Withdrawn From Dating
Situationships play a major role in that dynamic. Sixty-two percent of women in the survey said they’d been in at least one undefined romantic connection, offering intimacy without structure or expectation. For many, that ambiguity doesn’t feel neutral. It feels exhausting. Nearly half of the respondents said they reacted by pulling back emotionally, not out of bitterness, but as a way to protect themselves from repeated disappointment.
The behavioral gap is hard to miss. Men reported using low-effort dating tactics at much higher rates, while women reported being ghosted far more often than men admitted. That imbalance affects how women approach early dating. More than a third now delay exclusivity conversations, not out of indifference, but because clarity can feel like a liability.
The broader retreat from dating apps adds context. A recent survey from AppsFlyer found that 65 percent of dating apps are deleted within a month, with most uninstalls happening within the first week. Another report from Hint App found that 82 percent of women said they were finished with situationships entirely.
Morgan Anderson, a licensed clinical psychologist and relationship coach, told Newsweek that deleting dating apps can feel like “a rebellion against the digital dating scene that feels superficial and exhausting,” noting that many people are gravitating back toward meeting partners offline because it feels more human.
Emotional withdrawal doesn’t mean women have stopped wanting intimacy. It suggests they’re less willing to keep participating in a dating culture where ambiguity is the norm and emotional effort rarely gets met with anything concrete in return.
The post This Is the Real Reason So Many Women Are Emotionally Done With Dating appeared first on VICE.
