Dating

A new study found that people who suffer from anxiety and depression, especially now during the pandemic, benefit from using dating apps – and those helped were mainly women.

According to Scientific Times, researchers from Ryerson University in Canada analyzed symptoms of social anxiety and “the use, motivation, and interaction associated with dating apps.” 

The researchers found that as lockdowns took place and people were physically isolated from one another, women turned to dating apps to feel connection and ease symptoms like depression. Many singles have felt increasingly disconnected during the pandemic, with some looking to dating apps for a quick quarantine partner as an alternative to being alone.

Singles in the U.K. are on the hunt for love before the next wave of the pandemic forces people to isolate once more. 

Dating site eHarmony found that one fifth of singles (21%) are eager to find partners right now as potential lockdowns loom, and that 40% of those looking to couple up will do so because they spent the previous lockdown alone. Eighteen percent are looking to move in with a partner to escape their current living situation, whether it’s with family, roommates, or living alone.

Dressing up for Halloween? You might want to reconsider your scary or political-themed ensemble and go for something funny, according to a new study from Dating.com.

The dating service surveyed its users to assess the differences a Halloween costume could make in attracting potential partners. Considering this is an election year in the U.S., political costumes might be popular, but it seems the vast majority of daters – 70% of respondents - are most attracted to people wearing funny costumes. 

Cute costumes came in a distant second at 18 percent, and scary costumes third at 13 percent. Political costumes were a definite no among both men and women. They were considered the least attractive costumes for 68 percent of men and 52 percent of women. So, if you were planning on dressing as Joe Biden or Donald Trump, you might want to come up with another plan.

A new study by dating app Hinge found that since coronavirus lockdowns began, people are dating more and ghosting less often than before.

The company surveyed users about their dating habits since they have been sheltering at home in the wake of the coronavirus spread, and found that 27% reported ghosting less often than they did before the pandemic. In contrast, a 63% majority of those surveyed admitted to ghosting people before the pandemic.

Dating app Match has launched a timely feature for these times. “Dates” allows users to share their social distancing practices and what they feel comfortable with from video chats to meeting in person.

The spread of the coronavirus has impacted societies across the globe and forced people to stay in their houses instead of gathering together, which has impacted dating. Many singles turned to dating apps for connection and to meet people virtually, and a number of apps launched video chat features to keep people connected. Match however is being proactive as we start to go out by offering tools to help people navigate meeting each other in person, since there are different levels of comfort people have right now in getting together.

OkCupid Study on Politics and Dating

Image: OkCupid

If you’re looking to improve your dating options, you might want to register to vote, at least if you’re an OkCupid user. 

The famously provocative dating app conducted a study among its users and found that they tend to be more politically engaged, and therefore want their dates to be too, especially during an important election year in the U.S. A whopping seventy-six percent surveyed said that how their dates lean politically is important. OkCupid users consider voting a very important practice – and over 500,000 of its users said they wouldn’t consider dating someone who didn’t vote. 

Ninety-one percent of women and 89% of men surveyed said they are registered to vote. In fact, the study found that registered voters on OkCupid are 85% more likely to get a message than non-registered voters, which is one of the reasons OkCupid now offers a voting badge feature to attach to your profile for easy identification. Registered voters are also 63% more likely to get a match.