An Investigation at How Dating Apps Affect College Students

Dating applications have been popularized by college students, and continue to become a more and more prevalent part of our society, but are these dating applications a beneficial part of society when juxtaposed to the happiness college students report in their dating lives. In order to accurately tailor these applications to their audience, it is pertinent to understand their effects on that audience.

In conducting this study, a probable risk factor that was identified is the ideology that frequent usage of dating applications leads to more risky sexual conduct, a larger amount of sexual partners, and the exposure to overtly sexualized potential romantic partners. All of these likely risks add up to more unhappiness in an individual's dating life. Throughout this study, we explore how use of a variety of dating applications contribute to unhappiness in college students' dating lives. The central hypothesis for this study is that the usage of an online dating application (the independent variable) leads to an unhappy dating life (the dependent variable). Literature Review.

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• Finkel, E. J. Online Dating: A Critical Analysis From the Perspective of Psychological Science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest.

This study looked at people to see their access to potential matches. The researchers mainly analyzed access to potential romantic partners, communication with potential romantic partners, and matching with compatible partners. The research question was in two parts, part one compared online dating with offline dating in terms of pervasiveness and compatibility matching. Part two examined whether online dating yielded romantic relationships on the same level as offline dating (Finkel). Their dependent variable was the difference between online dating conversations and in person conversations, and it was also if online dating helps romantic partnerships. For both questions the independent variable was the dating application. During this research project they found that dating applications do greatly affect conversations compared to in-person.

It also showed that there was little difference in the "success" of a relationship between online dating and in person dating. However, they found that online dating could result in more dates because it takes out the middleman of having to find someone; it grants easier access to potential partners. This relates to our research project because it looks at online dating in regards to finding matches with someone. While this did not go into the happiness that someone has in their dating life, it does conclude that dating applications lead to more dates. 2) Cacioppo, J. T., S. Cacioppo, G. C. Gonzaga, E. L. Ogburn, and T. J. Vanderweele. "Marital Satisfaction and Break-ups Differ across On-line and Off-line Meeting Venues." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2012): 10135-0140. Print.

This study done at the University of Chicago looked at how people are meeting their spouses and overall marital happiness. They mainly analyzed if divorce rates were higher with couples who met online or offline and the marital satisfaction between online or offline matches of those who are currently married. The dependent variable in this study is how happy the various couples are in their marriages and also if meeting online ultimately helps or hurts couples. The independent variable was if the couple met online or offline.

During the study, researchers found that online couples had a higher satisfaction rate and a slightly better chance of staying together than offline couples. The research concludes that studies are no longer able to treat all online dating venues as the same. This relates to our project because it looks at how online dating affects relationship outcomes. It studied the overall happiness and success of marriages based on if they met online or offline, and our research question asks if people will be happier if they find their dates using dating applications or not. This study does not support our hypothesis, but rather completely opposes it.

• Tamerler, Kevin. How Far Will We Go for (Online) Love: Research on the Positive Effects of Technological Romance. Hempstead, New York. 2014.

https://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/Academics/Colleges/HCLAS/GEOG/geog TamerlerThesis 2014.pdf

This research seeks to find out why people use online dating sites and applications, for how long they are willing to continue use of the site or application, and how the users feel after participating in the culture. Additionally, one of the researcher's questions pertained to the positive and negative views the users had towards other people on the application or site. To find these statistics, the researcher conducted interviews via the phone, in-person, and online. He interviewed a total of 87 individuals, most of who were between the ages of 18-25, all of who had dated online. He used a convenient sampling method, using individuals he knew or using website forums he already used. His findings were that each site or application had specific marketing techniques, and both genders generally understood where to go if they were looking for long-term relationships over casual sex, or vice versa.

Both genders also agreed that online dating tends to lead to long distance relationships, if a relationship is the goal. Although the researcher was looking to find out the effects that online dating had on the participants' views of their potential partners, most of the interviewees had more to say about their own self-esteem while being online. This pertains to our research because it studies participants' psyches while striving to date online, which is what we are trying to study based on our research question. We want to understand how happy people are with their dating life in regards to using online dating applications or not. This study supports our hypothesis because it concluded that the usage of dating applications makes one self conscious and unable to see past their own selves.

• Hitsch, Guenter J., Ali Hortacsu, and Dan Ariely. (2008). "Matching and Sorting in Online Dating." SSRN Electronic Journal SSRN Journal (2008). Print.

The researchers for this study examined online dating profiles, mainly examining the economics of match development and whether or not the economic matching model is useful at predicting happiness levels once the couples meet in person. These researchers looked at 756 profiles, at how well online dating sites match people up, and what people are looking for in a partner. The independent variable in this study was the current population survey of the state where each dating profile was taken from. The dependent variable was the various matches the users found on the dating sites.

The conclusions from this research project were that men and women tend to look at more superficial attributes like weight and money while online dating than they do in person. They also cautioned that these are easily observed online and personality can make up for something lacking when they meet in person. This study relates to our study because it looks at how people use dating applications. This study looked at people who were actively looking for a match in hopes of obtaining a date. Our research question looks at one: how people use dating applications and if they are using it for a date and then two: it looks at how happy people are who are using dating applications. This research study supports our hypothesis. Summary.

In summation, the research on the topic of the usage of online dating applications is inconclusive, contradictory, and incomplete. Research states that although dating applications are convenient, they also have negative effects such as creating a superficial dating atmosphere where one is concerned more with their own self image than crafting meaningful relationships. The hypothesis for this study is that the usage of an online dating application leads to an unhappy overall dating life. There is evidence to suggest that dating applications affect happiness in an individual's dating life. The literature reviewed both supports and denies our central hypothesis that dating applications negatively affect an individual's dating life. Our independent variable is the usage of a number of dating applications, and our dependent variable is happiness in an individual's dating life.

Method

Sample. This study uses a convenience sample of 140 students recruited from the Arizona State University campus. Students were approached by team members and asked to complete the survey of 7 questions pertaining to usage of dating applications and happiness in dating life. There were XXX males and XXX females. The ethnicity breakdown was...

Dating Application Usage. Students were asked to report on how frequently they used dating applications in pursuit of dates in the past six months. They used the following response scale (Never-10+). This response scale, however, was later found obsolete because not enough respondents had a high enough answer to be able to break the levels down into three levels. A sample item is that 7 popular dating applications were listed and participants were asked to circle the applications they had been on in the past six months.

Happiness in Dating Life. The participants were asked to circle a number on a scale of how happy they are in their dating life. The scores ranged from 1-unhappy to 5-extremely happy.

Analysis Plan

We will be performing a t-test because we wish to compare all of the individuals that participated in our study, as opposed to comparing groups of individuals. We will be doing a one-tailed test because we wish to know if our IV does or does not affect our DV.

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