Swiping Right for "Mr Right": An Investigation Into the Relationship Between Tinder Use and Relationship Attitudes and Behaviors in Australian Female Emerging Adults

Tinder is a popular mobile dating application among emerging adults (18 to 29-years-old) seeking new romantic and sexual partners. Tinder's design features are proposed to encourage hookups (casual sexual relationships) while undermining romantic relationship commitment (David & Cambre, 2016). Research into female dating application users is particularly underinvestigated despite research suggesting that female Tinder users report their application use to have a greater impact upon their dating behaviors compared with male users (Newett et al., 2018). This quantitative study explores relationships between Tinder use and attitudes and behaviors surrounding hookups and committed romantic relationships in female Tinder users. It was hypothesized that Tinder users (n = 146) would engage in more hookups and place less importance on committed relationships than nonusers (n = 103). Data were collected using online surveys. As expected, Tinder users reported less-strict sexual standards scripts, lower soulmate beliefs, greater sexual permissiveness, have greater numbers of relationships, and hookup more than nonusers. Contrary to expectations, no differences were observed between Tinder users and nonusers on sexual communion. Obtained findings suggest that Tinder may facilitate greater sexual liberality or alternatively that those already high in liberality are drawn to nontraditional forms of dating. Further research should qualitatively investigate the extent to which female dating application users are active agents in pursuing casual sex. Obtained findings have implications for emerging adults to enable informed decision-making about their Tinder use and to ensure their motivations for use are aligned with potential attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Public Policy Relevance Statement Australian women aged 18 to 29 who had used the Tinder dating application were more likely than non-Tinder users to report less-strict sexual standards scripts, lower soulmate beliefs, greater sexual permissiveness, and report greater numbers of both relationships and casual hookups. Understanding the ways that dating application use relates to relationship attitudes and behaviors furthers academic understanding of the role that modern media posits with dating beliefs and behaviors and may assist application users to make more informed decisions about their use.