Beyond hookups: Study reveals dating apps are used for the most unexpected reasons other than romance and casual sex

Personality, the ‘why’ behind the way people behave, carries substantial weight in daily interactions. Dating apps have revolutionised how people connect, bringing conversations online. The intent behind downloading dating apps and swiping for matches heavily stems from personality. Dating app users have different reasons, from looking for serious romance to casual sex or even entertainment.

A study published in Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace explored how personality traits influence dating behaviour, particularly why people use dating apps like Tinder. The researchers narrowed it down to the ‘Dark Triad’ traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. This was further expanded by including sadism, making Dark Triad become Dark Tetrad.

Other than the personality traits, the study also looked at sociosexual orientation, which refers to how open someone is to casual, no-strings-attached sex.

Let’s understand what these personality traits are and how they influence dating motives on dating apps.

Understanding the ‘Dark Tetrad’ traits

Dark Tetrad trait is a cluster of traits that typically has negative social behaviours, with an underlying manipulative agenda.

Dark Tetrad consists of narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism.

Narcissism is inflated self-importance, self-obsession and a need for admiration. While Machiavellianism is a manipulative social approach that is focused only on personal gains. Psychopathy is a lack of empathy with impulse tendencies. And lastly, sadism is about seeking pleasure from other's pain and suffering.

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Different user profiles based on intent

The researchers examined almost 200 participants through a survey, with the majority being women. Based on the responses, they profiled them into three distinct groups.

The first is romance-driven users. Almost about 41% of participants belong to this group. They look for serious connections, with low interest in casual sex. These participants scored low on Dark Tetrad traits.

The second group is casual sex-seeking users. 39% of participants fell into this group. These people are most open to casual sex without any meaningful connection. They displayed somewhat high levels of narcissism and moderate levels of Machiavellianism and psychopathy.

Third is social approval seekers, the remaining 20% of the participants. Interestingly, this group has the highest scores in the Dark Tetrad traits, particularly psychopathy and sadism. They are not motivated just by sex, instead, the dating app acts as social approval.

So what does this mean?

People with Dark Tetrad traits, who generally have negative, conniving social behaviour, are expected to engage in debaucherous behaviours, going on dating apps for casual encounters and staying emotionally detached.

But it turns out they place a lot of weight on social approval and validation. Dating apps are a big source of social validation from strangers. This shows that social approval is important for them to feel good about themselves.

It shows that people with high Dark Tetrad traits are not likely to use Tinder for sex. They may appear aloof and cunning, but most of their self-importance comes from social validation too.

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