New research examines ethnic and educational assortative mating on dating apps

Using dating apps has become an increasingly popular way to search for a romantic partner in the last decade, but does this shift in tactics change the way we choose our partners? A new study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior suggests that it might not mitigate the human desire to select partners who are similar to oneself.

Research on dating shows a general tendency toward assortative mating, which is partnering with people who are similar to oneself. Previous studies have shown that online dating decreases this tendency, which is thought to be due to people being introduced to prospective partners that they would otherwise have no connection to, thus facilitating meeting and becoming romantically involved despite having a lack of similarities. Interracial relationships fall squarely outside of the assortative mating tendency and have grown in popularity as the social and legal standards have shifted.

Study author Giula Ranzini and colleagues sought to examine dating app behaviors in the Netherlands to assess the prevalence of assortative mating-consistent behavior. They used two samples of 252 and 270 Dutch adults recruited online. They created a mock dating app with 110 profiles for participants to look at and judge. They had white vs non-white profiles, Dutch sounding name vs non-Dutch sounding name profiles, and college vs vocational school profiles. Participants indicated whether they’d like to see female or male profiles and were asked to either ‘heart’ or ‘x’ the profiles of their selected gender based on if they would be romantically interested in them.

The results showed that the strongest predictor of selecting a dating profile was physical attractiveness, which is consistent with previous research on dating apps and dating in general. In addition, higher-education participants were more likely to select the higher-education profiles, while for lower-education participants, education vs vocation was not a significant factor. Participants who had Dutch ancestry were more likely to prefer White profiles but having Dutch-sounding name did not have any significant effects. These results show partial support for assortative mating occurring, even on dating apps.

This study made progress in understanding assortative mating on dating apps, but it has several significant limitations. Firstly, the Netherlands is a country with relatively low ethnic diversity, which makes it difficult to know if these results would be generalizable to countries such as the United States. Another limitation is that this study focused only on ethnicity and education as assortative factors. Future research could focus on other factors that help forge romantic connections.

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“In spite of recent research showing an increase in interracial relationships, we uncovered a pattern of positive ethnic assortative mating, at least when it came to profile images, among the respondents, who ultimately preferred pictures featuring a white-looking individual,” the researchers concluded. “It appears that, at least in the Netherlands, users of app-based dating platforms might not end up with a partner who is drastically different from themselves.”

The study, “Assortive (online) dating: Insights into partner choice from an experimental dating app“, was authored by Giulia Ranzini, Judith E. Rosenbaum, and Joshua M. Tybur.