Psychologists Lennart Freyth and Peter K. Jonason published a study in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking that dug into the minds of nearly 500 German-speaking Tinder users. The users, aged 16 to 70, were asked to definitively answer what kinds of people are actually having sex through dating apps.
For men, the answer was disturbing: those most likely to have app-based sexual encounters also scored high in psychopathy. Not just that, but it’s the “Dark Triad” kind, which includes low empathy, impulsivity, and a tendency to treat people like NPCs in a GTA side mission.
They are also presumably more likely to call real-life people NPCs, which is an entire battalion of red flags in and of itself. According to the researchers, these men were notably more manipulative and emotionally detached.
This Type of Man Scores the Most Hookups on Tinder, Study Finds
Women, on the other hand, didn’t show these dark traits. Instead, those who had sex with their app matches were more likely to feel good about the experience. Researchers floated a few theories, like that maybe these women felt empowered by their choices. Or perhaps they just made peace with mediocrity.
One researcher even suggested it might be a “sunk cost effect” that causes companies to release bad products simply because they’ve invested so much money in them already that they might as well just release the damn thing and make what they can off of it. After investing so much time and effort in chatting up a guy who may not have been worth it, a woman may decide that the decision to hook up was already made a long time ago, so she might as well just get it over with.
The women seemed to be navigating with more emotional nuance, whereas guys were swiping on anyone, playing a numbers game rather than being discerning. Still, the study didn’t say women were “less picky” across the board, just that they seemed more likely to adapt their standards after a date began. They’d go into it with high expectations, and if the man did not meet them once they met in person, they’d go with the flow.
It’s a self-reported study, so some shame or bravado probably skewed the numbers one way or another here and there. Still, its wider age range makes it one of the more inclusive dives into dating app behavior, suggesting that these dynamics aren’t just applicable exclusively to contemporary twentysomethings.
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