Studies

Image: Tinder

Tinder released a new report this December called “Year in Swipe,” where the popular dating app revealed the best time to log into the app and other insights to help improve your dating game.

Searching through its troves of data to find interesting trends among users, Tinder found that the best day to be on the app is Monday. The best time is also in the evening – 6:00pm for those in California and the West Coast, and 9:00pm for East Coast residents. The study noted that August was the best month of the year for activity, but any Monday night you’re likely to see a spike in users, so it’s good to take advantage and log in.

Tinder examined other high-traffic times on the app, noting specific events over the past year where more people were swiping and logging in. Big surprise - the Superbowl turned out to be the most popular event of the year for Tinder as well as American football fans.

Dating apps have taught us to be discerning and to not waste time on matches who don’t meet our requirements. After all, there are so many choices! But Gen Z is about to change things with a different attitude and approach.

Dating app Zoosk analyzed more than 5.7 million of its profiles and surveyed over 4,000 daters on the site to see where the differences between the generations lie when it comes to dating preferences. As it turns out, Generation Z (the youngest group of dating app users) tend to have a much healthier approach to dating than Millennials, Gen X and baby boomers.

According to an article in Marketwatch outlining the study, Gen Z are the least picky daters, and swipe yes to 33% of potential matches. This is 15% more than millennials and 20% more than Gen X and baby boomers. This increases the odds of meeting in person and having more dates, but younger daters are also typically less interested in more serious relationships and opt to meet more people instead.

Online dating revolutionized the way we meet and is seen worldwide as a modern approach to finding love - but according to a recent study from the University of Oxford’s Oxford Internet Institute (OII), the experience of online dating is not nearly as progressive as the technology is.

Researchers at the OII analyzed 10 years of eHarmony UK user data to find out how gender norms and social attitudes have evolved over the last decade. The study, Computational Courtship: Understanding the Evolution of Online Dating through Large-scale Data Analysis, reveals their surprising conclusion: little has changed, and what has is not for the better.

Traditional gender roles continue to dictate how men and women connect online. The study found that men are 30 percent more likely than women to initiate conversation on a dating service. The number has actually increased over time, from six percent in 2008 to 30 percent in 2018. When women do initiate, the response rate drops by 15 percent.

Dating isn’t easy on the ego. The search for a soulmate is fraught with opportunities to be rejected, to be ghosted, to be stood up, to be dumped… almost no one escapes unscathed by Cupid’s cruelties.

Then along came online dating. It promised a vaster pool of potential matches than we could ever meet IRL and more control over our romantic lives. At its best, it successfully achieves both - but at its worst, it’s a festering cesspit of anxiety, racism, superficiality, sexism, catfishing, pseudo-intimacy, and trust issues.

Scientists and dating experts are increasingly questioning whether we have the mental resilience to cope with the modern dating landscape, and whether our beloved apps and websites are harming more than they’re helping.

What’s a bigger turn off: a sloppy kiss or sloppy grammar? According to the second annual “Conversation Nation” study from Plenty of Fish, adult singles consider lackluster conversation a greater offense than lousy sex.

POF took a deep dive into the communication habits of daters across the U.S. for Conversation Nation 2018, surveying 2,000 men and women over 18 years of age to discover how singles connect in the digital era.

“Singles are prioritizing conversations over physical attraction,” dating expert Shannon Smith told Metro. “We’re seeing again and again from user testimonials and data that relationships start with a great conversation.”

Do men and women think differently when it comes to receiving compliments over a dating app? According to a recent study by website AskMen.com, the gender gap in this area is problematic for online dating. Turns out, men and women are in totally different camps when it comes to giving and receiving compliments in the romance department.

AskMen surveyed 1,000 people in 2018 about their preferences for online dating, including ranking their favorite compliments. The purpose? To see where the divide is when reaching out to the opposite sex for a date. If you’re a guy wondering why you don’t hear back from matches after you compliment them on their appearance, this could be the reason. Or if you’re a woman, complimenting a guy on his intelligence isn’t the best way to stir up intrigue and romance, either.

In other words, just because you like receiving compliments about your looks or your personality doesn’t mean the opposite sex thinks the same way! Here’s how the results played out.