Study Finds That Disappearing Photos Increase Matches

A new study has found that when dating app users can share disappearing photos with other users, it can increase matches and user engagement.

According to Phys.org, researchers found that enabling people to share photos that would disappear within a certain timeframe helped them overcome fears related to privacy and helped with conversation starters. Many dating app users are not willing to share personal details about themselves when they meet new people on dating apps, making it more difficult to connect and have deeper conversations, according to the study.

The large-scale randomized field experiment was conducted with more than 70,000 users of a China-based dating app. The experiment featured both a control group where subjects uploaded a photo that would stay posted, like in traditional dating app profiles, and a treatment group where users could upload ephemeral photos. They found that users in the treatment group sent more personal photos compared with the control group.

The increased sharing of disappearing photos led to more engagement and conversations as well as more matches, according to researchers.

The sharing of ephemeral photos was a feature first used in social platform SnapChat, and according to researchers, there is a reason why the move became so popular. When you know that someone’s photos will disappear within a certain amount of time, it’s more motivating to reach out. The findings also show that people are more willing to share more about themselves because knowing that these photos will disappear offers them more privacy.

Lead study author Yumei He, assistant professor of management science at Tulane's A. B. Freeman School of Business, told Phys.org: "Usually people on dating platforms are strangers, and they have privacy concerns…What if my information now gets abused, or I get identified by somebody else, my friends or acquaintances?"

He went on to say that making photos disappear on dating apps gave users a certain level of comfort and safety, and as with social media, they felt more inclined to share. On dating apps, He told Phys.org: "people still want to preserve a good self-image or present themselves in order to get a quality match."

Researchers also found no increase in lewd or toxic photos being shared among participants, even when they knew that the photos would disappear.

The study was conducted by researchers at Tulane University In conjuction with Xingchen Xu from the University of Washington, Ni Huang and Kevin Hong from the University of Miami, and De Liu from the University of Minnesota.