Game Theory Strategies of Online Dating Apps
https://thevidaconsultancy.com/blog/players-and-playas/
In Joseph Bennett’s article, “Players and Playas: The Game Theory of Online Dating,” he discusses how men and women actually benefit from different swiping strategies (on heterosexual dating apps). In today’s world, dating apps have significantly opened people’s dating pools, presenting the idea that there are an almost unlimited pool of partners. Thus, many often describe using these apps more as a “game,” than its true intention to find a partner. Bateman’s principle, a concept in evolutionary psychology, says that men are much less picky than women when it comes to short-term partners. Thus, men very often actually swipe “yes” on every single user without looking, whereas women almost never do this. When using dating apps, both men and women are ultimately utilizing strategies that, ideally, optimize their own outcomes, and prevent their opponent (the person they are swiping on) from gaining the upper hand.
First we can take a look at a man’s strategy (assuming we are merely discussing heterosexual online dating). Since they are much less picky, they often swipe right on every woman at, say, one profile per second. He does not look at her profile or decide whether she captures his interest until a match actually occurs. Therefore, he will only put in effort once she has swiped yes on him. Thus, there is only one case where automatically swiping right on every woman is not the optimal strategy for men: when they are actually matched with so often that the time they must take to go through each profile matched takes more time than if they just scanned the profiles while swiping. In that case, a woman’s swiping strategy is then optimal, as she knows she has a rather high chance of matching with any guy she swipes right on- thus, she is much more picky when skimming each profile before she swipes, as to not waste her time.
This table represents the online dating apps “game” between men and women. There are two Nash Equilibria: (Left swipe, Left swipe) and (Right swipe, Right swipe). This is because if one person believes that the other person will left-swipe on them, it makes most sense to also swipe left, so that they don’t lose a swipe (swipes are limited). However, if one person believes the other will swipe right, he/she will do so to create a match.