Studies

For information on the science of attraction, few names carry more weight than Eli Finkel.

Finkel is a professor at Northwestern University who studies interpersonal attraction, marriage, conflict resolution, and how social relationships influence goal achievement. In his role as director of Northwestern’s Relationships and Motivation Lab (RAMLAB), he has published 130+ scientific papers and is a regular contributor to the Op-Ed page of The New York Times. He’s also the author of a best-selling book, The All-Or-Nothing Marriage, and was called "one of the leading lights in the realm of relationship psychology” by The Economist.

So when Finkel makes a pronouncement about dating, we listen. His most recent research has looked into dating services and matching algorithms, in hopes of answering the most important question of all: do they actually work?

Online dating is one of the most popular ways to meet people, thanks to free apps and services like Plenty of Fish and Tinder. But many daters opt to be more particular in their search, and are willing to pay for a more curated experience, whether it’s online dating, matchmaking, or even “casual dating” services, like escorts.

According to a new study done by Statista for the Digital Market Outlook (DMO), the United States has the largest share of adults worldwide who are actively paying for a dating service. More than a quarter – 26 percent - of daters in the U.S. are paying for dating services, followed by the UK at almost 21 percent and Germany with 17 percent.

Daters in France, China and Saudi Arabia were the least likely to pay for a dating service according to the study, with 13%, 11% and 5% of daters respectively who were active paying customers at the time of the study.

See how Bucket List works

We’re headed into summer, and online dating company Match conducted a survey to assess how many singles feel more adventurous this time of year. The results are in – 85% said that a potential date’s sense of adventure was an attractive quality, and 76% said they’d like to try something new in the coming months.

In fact, the results were overwhelmingly clear – singles crave a sense of adventure. Seventy-three percent said they would actually be more attracted to someone if they had a bucket list item in common, and 66% of singles said they would likely check off one of their bucket list items on a date.

Because of this, Match decided to create a new feature on their dating app called ‘Bucket List’ to highlight potential dates’ sense of adventure.

Have you met someone over your favorite dating app and questioned their honesty? Chances are, if you’re an active online dater you have, and you’re not alone. Many daters are distrustful of other daters, and can’t tolerate even a small “white lie” – whether it’s fudging your weight, age or income, according to a new study by dating site Match.

This is because many of us aren’t exactly honest with our dates. In fact, Match’s annual Singles in America study surveyed over 5,000 daters in the U.S. across a range of ages, ethnicities, and regions to determine how much (and what type) of small lies they would tolerate on a first date before turning down a second date.

Match found the majority of daters – 57% - claim they do not tell white lies while they’re dating. Moreover, two thirds of daters believe any small fib is unacceptable. In fact, your chances of getting a second date or having sex aren’t made better by lying, so the consensus among singles is: just don’t do it.

No, it’s not just in your head: most of your friends are online dating.

In a recent survey, Tinder took a deep-dive into Millennial dating habits and compared the experiences of online daters and offline daters. They looked at key differentiators around fidelity, communication, perception and mindfulness, and debunked some of the most persistent modern dating myths out there.

For starters, dating services haven’t ruined dating, despite what critics say. In fact, people who date online are likely to have more committed relationships than those who do not date online. Only 9 percent of Tinder users reported finding it challenging to maintain a committed relationship. That’s significantly lower than the national average.

Tinder has a reputation as a hook-up app, but what about people who want to find lasting relationships? Should they look elsewhere, asking friends to set them up or striking up conversation at a bar instead of going online? How does Tinder really compare to people who meet the old-fashioned way – in real life?

A new study (commissioned and released by Tinder) shows that contrary to stereotypes, many people use Tinder with the intent of finding a relationship. And for those who prefer the real life approach, who proclaim it to be more genuine or organic, it seems this is not the reality, either.

Thanks to Tinder, we may now have a glimpse of what daters really want.