In and , the marriage rate hit the lowest numbers since the government began tracking it in β a trend that was well underway before the pandemic. Those who are single are far less likely to be living with a romantic partner than they were in A paradoxical reason, I argue in my forthcoming book : Dating apps. The conventional wisdom, of course, is that online dating has made it easier to meet people. While that may be true, few of these matches are leading to marriage β or even meaningful relationships.
But there are ways people can use them more strategically. Second, plenty of other research tells us that when people are overwhelmed with choices, they respond by not choosing any of them. Dating sites give people the impression of having loads of options because there always seems to be another person to swipe on. When people think they can easily find another romantic partner , they view the one they have less positively, are less committed to them and are more likely to break up with them.
This can help explain why the women I interviewed for my book kept complaining that the men they matched with treated them so terribly. Another reason, of course, is that when people meet online, they might have less reason to be concerned with their reputations.
Of course, people of all genders sometimes treat one another awfully after matching online, but when strangers treat women cruelly or erratically, there are often added fears of sexual violence. And, as I write in my book, I fear that all of the abuse women experience on social apps is normalizing the abuse of women offline.
Also contrary to conventional wisdom, research shows that women are less interested in dating than men. What should people looking for love do?
