Romantic Selectivity and Sexual Assertiveness on Dating Apps: An Experimental Test

Cassandra Alexopoulos, Liesel Sharabi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

This study uses biological market theory to examine the effects of dating app user interest (i.e., the number of people who have expressed interest either by sending a person a “like” or having matched with them) and user availability (i.e., the number of viable partners who are available and meet one's criteria) on romantic and sexual decision-making. Participants (N = 332) were randomly assigned to view messages showing high user interest, low user interest, high user availability, or low user availability. Findings showed that participants in the high interest (vs. low interest) condition were more selective, and that greater partner selectivity was associated with lower willingness to refuse unwanted sex. Findings also revealed differential effects for messages conveying high interest compared to high availability with partner selectivity explaining these effects. The implications of these findings for research on romantic and sexual decision-making in online dating are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 57th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2024
EditorsTung X. Bui
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages2586-2592
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9780998133171
StatePublished - 2024
Event57th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2024 - Honolulu, United States
Duration: Jan 3 2024Jan 6 2024

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
ISSN (Print)1530-1605

Conference

Conference57th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2024
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityHonolulu
Period1/3/241/6/24

Keywords

  • biological market theory
  • dating apps
  • romantic selectivity
  • sexual assertiveness
  • sexual coercion

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Engineering

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