The Game Theory of Tinder
Over the past few years our lives have become more and more integrated with technology and dating is no exception. Nowadays, instead of having to constantly go to bars or parties in order to meet new people and potential dates people can save the time and do it online or on their smartphones. Many apps like OKcupid and Tinder have become increasingly more popular amongst college students looking for dates. In the article Yes, Men always Swipe Right: The Game Theory of Tinder, Buzzfeed user Just Alex explains, “Tinder is a dating app that lets you window shop for human companionship” where the user either swipes right for yes or left for no. The purpose of this is to match people based on whether or not they mutually swiped right for each other and then they can chat through the app. While this works in theory there are several problems that arise for men while using the app to which Alex says “blame that John Nash guy… and Tinder… and the women on Tinder”. He explains that women hold all the power of choice and that the only way to get a match is to say yes to everyone in the hope that one of them picks you, hence the always swipe right strategy.
In the movie “A Beautiful Mind” Russell Crowe as John Nash explains that one of the best strategies when picking up women is to “not go for the blonde” but rather her not as attractive brunette friend because she is less likely to shoot you down and you will avoid competition from other men. This has lead to many theories of picking up women in which the dominant strategy for a guy is to approach less attractive women because any woman is better than no woman at all which is their Nash equilibrium.
With this in mind, using game theory Alex brings a new perspective to the Tinder matching game. By assigning payoffs to certain actions and outcomes he was able to deduce that the best possible strategy, and payoff, was for him to always swipe right which not only saved him time, but also gave him the ability to be selective once he had matched with a woman. “By always swiping right, I’m only putting in the effort of being selective when a woman has already matched with me, and that’s the key” Alex explains. This strategy, which through talking with several of my male friends here at Cornell, is indeed the most popular and the dominant strategy. Guys simply are looking to match with as many women as possible and as Nash explained, the best looking women are more likely to turn them down, so they swipe right to all and then pick the best one from the pool.
Where the Nash Equilibrium comes into play is the combination of men being so liberal with their matching and women being selective. Because of the male strategy of right swiping, women tend to be even more selective in order to avoid an influx of matches and messages and hence they are reacting to what they believe men’s dominant strategy is and thus choosing their own and as Alex puts it “the behavior of men reinforces the behavior of women and vice versa”. This is a classic example of Nash equilibrium because it follows the model that two players in a game against each other will settle on strategies that neither player would benefit by changing. So keep this in mind next time you open up your Tinder app, and think about what your dominant strategy for finding a date is.
This is, like so sexist…
Like, really.
In response to john, The article I referred to was written by a man explaining his personal tinder strategy, I was just explaing how it relates to this class and I find your comment rude also you should really change your email addresss if you’re posting on a university site because “sexual favors” is neither professional nor appropriate