Dating gone mobile: Demographic and personality-based correlates of using smartphone-based dating applications among emerging adults

Abstract

Mobile dating is more common with an increasing number of smartphone applications coming to market that aim to facilitate dating. In the current study, we investigated how dating app use and motivations related to demographic identity variables (i.e. gender and sexual orientation) and personality-based variables among young adults. Nearly half of the sample used dating apps regularly, with Tinder being the most popular. Non-users were more likely to be heterosexual, high in dating anxiety, and low in sexual permissiveness than dating app users. Among app users, dating app motivations, that is, relational goal motivations (love, casual sex), intrapersonal goal motivations (self-worth validation, ease of communication), and entertainment goal motivations (thrill of excitement, trendiness), were meaningfully related to identity features, for example, sexual permissiveness was related to the casual sex motive. Our study underlines that users’ identity drives their motivations for and engagement in mobile dating. However, more research is needed to study how sexual orientation influences mobile dating.