“You’ve got a matching market!” — Tinder’s take on constricted sets.
Tinder has recently revealed their swiping algorithms letting the users know that the app doesn’t necessarily expand everyone’s horizons allowing them to match with a dream partner. The dating app uses an algorithm to determine an individual’s ranking by recording the number of right swipes each of them tends to get. Tinder also takes into consideration the rankings of people these swipes come from. So let’s say that you are a new Tinder user with a freshly made profile and a witty bio paragraph. You start off with 50 points. If some other user with 50 points swipes left on you, you lose a point going down to 49. If a person with 45 points swipes left as well, the ranking will go down more drastically too. These decreases in rankings lead you to end up in the pool of “30s”, users with an average score of 30 points who excitedly swipe right on you while you quietly reject the “20s”. While the system seems a little off-putting considering the progressiveness of our generation through basically defining people’s appearance and worth by putting a secret numerical label on it, this algorithm allows for an efficient and productive experience for all Tinder users.
I cannot help but think of how well the algorithm resembles the matching market networks with constricted sets.
According to the subjective beauty standards, A>B>C. If ABC are in the same pool, we witness scenario 1. Tinder raises the “value” of A to bring it up in ranks resulting in scenario 2 in which B gets some attention and C is left alone again. In scenario 3 we raise the “value” of B to allow C to get attention. Obviously, it is not that simple considering that by conventional standards DEF will not be equally satisfied with matching with either ABC. Technically, they do have a preference. However, as user A gets more popular it will “exit” its network entering the one with more popular users giving room for the lower-ranked profiles. DEF also will have their own scores that will move their positions in different rankings and networks which will affect the outcomes. Nevertheless, in these simplified scenarios we can see that the Tinder algorithm is basically a program that ensures perfect matches within a network full of constricted sets.
Source: https://www.vox.com/2019/2/7/18210998/tinder-algorithm-swiping-tips-dating-app-science