Have you heard of eHarmony, match.com or probably the better known app, Tinder? You probably know these as places where individuals try to match for a short-term hookup or a date. However, in 2014, 11% of American adults used dating sites and 4 out of 10 of these individuals are looking for a partner online. So, it seems that the average American is pretty serious on finding the perfect "one". The question now is, what qualities are people looking for when looking for their soul mate? A pretty interesting study done by Seunga Venus goes into this general topic with a deeper focus. The study looks into the qualities of trustworthiness, interpersonal attraction and the Big Five personality traits(agreeableness, conscientiousness, neurotics, openness, and attraction). The interesting addition to this is the experimenters decided to test the effects of the dater's profile of being conservative/open-minded on people's perceptions of these qualities.
The study incorporated 65 undergraduate students from a major U.S. university who were randomly selected and assigned to the two groups. The individuals made profiles using manipulation stimuli, i.e. making their profile and pictures match an "open minded"/ "close minded" look. For example, the traditional/uptight pictures featured , "loose clothing" covering the maximum amount skin. The open/free-spirited pictures featured flashy daters in tight, revealing clothing. Afterwards, the participants were matched with individuals from the opposite sex. The Source Credibility Scale, Interpersonal Attraction Scales, and NEO Big Five inventories were all used to measure the desired qualities reported from the participants. To make sure each person was perceiving the profiles as traditional/open minded, a questionnaire was used answering various questions. The study was performed using these parameters and determined that in the open condition scenario, participants perceived each other to be more open than in the traditional scenario. Interesting enough, this matches the confirmation bias which is a tendency to search or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions. The participants in the traditional conditions are perceived to be more trustworthy, interpersonally attractive, agreeable conscientious and neurotic than open minded individuals. The study demonstrated the impact user-generated profiles had on the user's perception for the major qualities that are sought for. Interesting enough, online dating seems to have also caused certain perceptions to arise in women.
Molly Shapiro, journalist for the Huffington Post, brings a different view on online dating . She wrote an article describing how online dating is something that women just will not do but is something they should do. She plunges into several, interesting topics on the subject matter. She dives in with the idea that women will not go into dating because people will perceive them as loser who seeks desperation. However, she goes into the scenario that when women go out to places such as bars, men will tend to objectify them, taking looks mostly into account. However, she talks about how when using online dating sites, you can efficiently and sensibly find hundreds of potential individuals who have lengthy profiles with "background, intersects, personality". Shapiro's attitude surprisingly connects to the previously mentioned study that people tend to look at someone's internal qualities (traditional) then their external qualities(open-minded). She also brings forth a counter-example to bolster her argument. She explains how women have that common perception that men lie online. The author brings forth a short anecdote on how she even matched and fell in love with a man whose whole persona was a lie. Finally, the author brings up the notion that women want that good "how we met story". She discusses how her current, 4-year old relationship was with someone she matched online who she was initially unsure about. Now, she got to know his qualities and does not feel shame and is proud to be with him which also connects with conclusion from the study where people's user generated profiles affect their perception. The article provides an fascinating example of how previous notions are slowly becoming criticized.
From reading the study and article, you are probably asking, "so what? what was the point of this?". Well the article and study provided points which reveal how our current society is shifting. With the modernization of technology, individuals are shaping their ideas and perceptions on dating around it. Personally, Tinder is something that I see used by almost all of my friends. Additionally, the pictures and methods discussed in the study are things that my peers surprisingly use to make themselves more attractive to women on Tinder. Also, the article shows how a woman's perception represent how this new method of dating is slowly becoming acceptable and viable. Her perception may be an attitude that many others share and could possibly be a norm sometime in the future, Something to consider next time you are looking for that "one".
