What this story covers:
Dating apps are becoming increasingly popular, and there are more than ever before to choose among. One popular function that almost all apps include: the ability to use filters (age, location, interests, etc.) to narrow down the dating pool.
Why it matters:
In theory, the ability to set preferences is a good thing — it can be overwhelming to swipe through hundreds of people without any ability to set parameters. But our implicit biases may affect the way we use these filters. By narrowing down the pool, people may only be exposed to others who are like them.
By Tatiana Hewitt, T’Reyah Johnson & Tiara Lee
When Lauryn Scriber, a senior at Towson University, joined BLK, a dating app for black singles, she had some decisions to make. More than just determining what her profile picture would be, Scriber had to figure out what she wanted in a potential partner.
BLK, like many other dating apps, gave Scriber the chance to set her preferences. What gender should her partner be? Male. What should his physical traits be? A good head of hair, a deep voice. What kind of personality should he have? Outgoing, with the ability to let loose.
Scriber used these filters in hopes of meeting her ideal match. She felt as if she wasn’t meeting people in her life who are as open as she is, and the dating scene near her wasn’t ideal. She hoped BLK could solve that problem.
“I needed a new perspective on how to meet people,” Scriber said. “Nothing seemed to be working recently. At least being on the app you find people wanting more.”
But soon after she joined BLK, Scriber realized some of the pitfalls of online dating apps. She found that many of the people she came across weren’t really looking for in-person socializing. And the filters really just allowed people to pay attention to physical features rather than finding someone who has a similar mindset.
In recent years, online dating has increased in popularity. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center report, young adults ages 18-24 reported using online dating at record rates. On apps such as Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and Clover, users can filter or use the settings given in the apps to indicate their preferences on everything from age to race to religion to interests to geographic location.
Instead of having to wade through hundreds of potential partners, these filters narrow down our choices significantly. It sounds good in theory. But questions have arisen about how users’ implicit biases may affect the ways in which they indicate their preferences. The worry is that apps have simultaneously expanded the number of people we can meet while restricting the type of people we want to date to people who are like us.
Setting preferences on dating apps
Online dating has been around for decades. Kiss.com, created in 1994, is considered the first dating website. Match.com soon followed in 1995, and eHarmony was founded in 2000. Years later came some of the first dating apps, including Tinder and Hinge.
Before filters and preferences became widespread on dating apps, users often had to make decisions about whether they liked someone by reading their bios and looking at their profile pictures. Judging people based off pictures can be very misleading because it’s easy to use filters or other tricks to improve one’s appearance. Users also have been known to exaggerate their height and not be truthful about other parts of their past.
Now that apps allow users control over their preferences to a greater extent than before, users have to determine how to set these preferences. Catherine, a divorced 54 year old, chose the dating app OurTime because it caters to singles over 50. OurTime, rated as the No. 1 dating app on the Apple Appstore for mature singles, has a mission to provide singles in their 50s and 60s with a connection with others in the same stage of life. (To protect the privacy of Catherine, we omitted her last name).
Catherine said she chose filters such as being Christian and close in zip code or region because she cares about a partner sharing her faith and being close by.
“I kinda know what I am looking for…someone on my level,” Catherine said. “[With filters], you’re seeing what’s important to them, then you can decide whether it’s somebody of interest or not.”
Hear Catherine explain why she chooses online datingCatherine said she understands there are pros and cons to online dating and filtering. The upside is being able to indicate what’s important. The downside, she noted, is that people are sometimes untruthful and the filters become less useful.
Scriber also has had her own experiences with misleading profiles. She noted that it can be a challenge finding compatible partners because people lie.
“You don’t really know what you’re getting,” Scriber said. “[Users] can give a picture of what they used to look like, and now look completely different.”
Added Scriber: “I choose the age range from 20-25. I wouldn’t want it to be too big… the age range does [limit the dating pool], what if my next dude is 26/27, I wouldn’t have met him on the app because I didn’t allow myself to get that filter range.”
People use dating apps for different reasons — to find someone for a serious relationship or, on the other end of the spectrum, to meet someone to form a friendship with. Filters don’t always allow users to indicate which they want. They also can take away spontaneous interaction and attraction.
“Online dating has changed the mindset with how people meet each other,” said Dominique Johnson, 26. “It makes it less intimate as far as getting to truly know somebody since they are just putting preferences/filters in an app.”
Implicit bias
Everyone has dating preferences. In some cases, these preferences illustrate our biases: toward tall people, thin people, blonde people, even people of a certain race or religion. In the article Debiasing Desire: Addressing Bias and Discrimination on Intimate Platforms, authors Jevan Hutson, Jessie G. Taft, Solon Barocas, and Karen Levy argue that dating apps play into these biases, and often have built in biases themselves.
As the authors state, “Designing technical systems to be resistant to bias and discrimination represents vital new terrain for researchers, policymakers, and the anti-discrimination project more broadly.” They note that if creators can redesign these apps, they may erase the biases we’ve formed. The article also cited apps that instead of giving the power to the participant in some cases, group them together based on interest, and views, rather than external identities like race.
Johnson, who does online dating, said preferences should go beyond just looks.
“I think dating apps or just apps in general have that stigma behind it that you have to use filters and the value of ‘likes’…but in reality, it can all just be a facade,” she said.
The Debiasing Desire researchers found that features that allow people to remove others who are different from them can be detrimental. Filters play a huge role in the possible matches someone will get, due to the preferences that they use. Apps like Hinge have preferences but also allow people to match based on common interests with word prompts like “Believe it or not,” or “A social cause I care about.” There are “slow-dating” apps that don’t show pictures until later such as Appetence, and ask users to focus on other characteristics.
Janelle Maddox-Regis, a mobile developer, is working to create a dating app that will users filters and is in the process of deciding which filters will be included. Maddox-Regis is taking advantage of her down time during COVID-19 and is collaborating with friends to create something new.
“When coming up with how our dating app can be different than others, filter selections were definitely a must,” Maddox-Regis said. “Users on these apps have deal breakers that they want to filter out and we can provide that. These filters are the same biases that people would use when approaching a potential partner [in person] and considering if there is a connection.” Maddox-Regis says.
Kendal Ballentine, a Towson senior, said that although preferences are good because they filter who you absolutely know you wouldn’t want to connect with, they cannot always help you find a perfect match.
“Sometimes the preferences are very specific,” Ballentine said. “So for example black, white, Asian, but what if you want to attract an Ethiopian partner, that would generally be listed under black, or person of color, but this doesn’t exactly narrow down your results to an Ethiopian partner.”
Ballentine has had more time to look into dating apps during the COVID-19 quarantine. She uses filters such as black men from the ages of 22-28.
“I choose these specific preferences based on the type of man or partner that I would typically go after in real life — this seemed the most fitting,” Ballentine said.
For Ballentine and others, once the preferences are set, then the work begins.