Abstract
In recent years, dating apps have changed the way people meet and communicate with potential romantic and/or sexual partners. There exists a stereotype considering that these apps are used only for casual sex, so those apps would not be an adequate resource to find a long-term relationship. The objective of this study was to analyze possible individual differences in the mating orientations (short-term vs. long-term) between users and non-users of dating apps. Participants were 902 single students from a mid-size Spanish university, of both sexes (63% female, and 37% male), aged between 18 and 26 years (M = 20.34, SD = 2.05), who completed a battery of online questionnaires. It was found that, whereas dating apps users had a higher short-term mating orientation than non-users (more frequent behavior, higher desire, and more positive attitude), there were no differences in the long-term orientation as a function of use/non-use. Considering this, dating apps are a resource with a strong presence of people interested on hooking-up while, simultaneously, not a bad (nor good) option for finding long-term love.
Highlights
In recent years, dating apps have become a very popular tool to initiate contact with potential romantic and/or sexual partners [1]
It has been considered that dating apps were used for casual sex, other studies have shown that the reasons for their use are more diverse
In response to the main objective of the study, differences were found between users and non-users of dating apps in the three dimensions of short-term orientation–especially in sociosexual behavior–but not in long-term orientation
Summary
In recent years, dating apps have become a very popular tool to initiate contact with potential romantic and/or sexual partners [1]. It is estimated that more than one hundred million people around the world regularly use these apps, which has made online dating one of the main ways to find a partner today, especially among young people [3]. It is widely believed that dating apps are used exclusively for casual sex [4]. A considerable amount of research [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] is developed, showing that people use these apps for a wide variety of reasons, and that seeking sex is not the main one at all. The reasons given above for sex vary in different studies, including relational (e.g., friendship, love), entertainment (e.g., curiosity, boredom), and intrapersonal issues (e.g., self-validation, ease of communication)
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