For imagination or disillusionment? The social compensation and social enhancement effects on dating anxiety for online daters who fear being single

Abstract

While some people choose to remain single, dating relationships and marriage remain dominant social expectations in many societies. This societal pressure can exacerbate the fear of being single, creating a vulnerable psychological state. Online dating provides opportunities for those who fear being single to meet new people and develop romantic relationships. And yet, we know little about how online daters' fear of being single is related to their well-being and how it could be alleviated or enhanced through online dating. Drawing on research on the social compensation and enhancement effects of the internet, this study proposes a path model investigating how the fear of being single was enhanced to affect online daters’ well-being negatively and alleviated to contribute to well-being positively. An online survey of 505 Chinese heterosexual online dating application users revealed that the fear of being single was positively and directly associated with dating anxiety. Further, the fear of being single was related to increased imagined interaction through sexual relationship motivation. Surprisingly, it was related to decreased romantic disillusionment through increased romantic relationship motivation, showing a compensation effect. Romantic disillusionment, but not imagined interaction, was positively associated with dating anxiety. This study extends research on the social compensation and enhancement effects to online dating contexts. It contributes a framework that explains how a vulnerable psychological state is related to online daters’ well-being through motivational tendencies (sexual relationship vs. romantic relationship) and cognitive characteristics (imagined interaction vs. romantic disillusionment).