Cheaters on dating apps exhibit more ‘psychopathic’ personality traits, study finds
Movie still from American Psycho starring Christian Bale
- Between 18 and 25 percent of Tinder users is in a committed relationship while on Tinder.
- Non-single Tinder users are more likely to report casual sexual behavior.
- Personality distinctions were found between non-single users and other groups.
Swiping left or right has now been engrained into the cultural vernacular. Across the world with approximately 50 million people swiping on the daily, Tinder has become one of the most popular dating platforms online.
However, it’s most certainly not everlasting love everyone is after. Recent surveys suggest that anywhere between 18 and 25 percent of users are in what’s considered an “exclusive” relationship. In the United States that percentage nearly doubles to a close 42 percent.
In a study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior researchers found that non-single Tinder users were quite different from their single user counterparts. The paper, aptly titled Why are you cheating on Tinder? Exploring users’ motives and (dark) personality trait, found that people who cheat on Tinder use dating apps for different reasons than users who are single. They are also more likely to have psychopathic personality traits compared to people in exclusive relationships who aren’t on Tinder.
Researchers surveyed students and non-students with questionnaires about their relationship status, Tinder usage, and whether or not they used the app for sexual encounters.
When a round of follow-up questions were asked about their offline behavior between other Tinder connections (or hookups) the researchers found that cheaters were more likely to have reported they engaged in more casual sexual relationships than other single users.
One of the authors of the study stated:
Some people in relationships might want to satisfy their curiosity about the current dating market by downloading Tinder. But we interpret this finding to mean that some people are also looking for a lot more when they download the app.
What some of these people in exclusive relationships are looking for in their side-quest for some digital infidelity might be led on because of some psychopathic tendencies.
