There is a misconception that dating apps are love killers. On the contrary, according to a Swiss study, couples formed online have more intention of cohabiting, and of starting a family.
In this time of confinements and curfews, dating apps are the most effective way to break loneliness. And yet, many received ideas circulate about them. These tools are criticized for encouraging casual encounters only, for being love-killers, or even for pushing into the frenzy of "consumption". But a recent study by the University of Geneva (UNIGE) gives certain benefits to these applications: this new way of meeting also promotes the formation of more committed couples.
Couples in dating apps more invested
If the dating apps have certainly changed the romantic encounter, they do not have a negative impact on the quality and the commitment of a couple. On the contrary. According to a study carried out by the University of Geneva published in the journal PLOS One, users of dating apps would be looking for more serious relationships than they appear. ‘‘Much of the media claims that they (dating apps) have a negative impact on the quality of relationships because they make people unable to invest in an exclusive or long term relationship. So far, however, there is no evidence that this is the case. ", says Gina Potarca, researcher at the Institute of Demography and Socio-Economics of the Faculty of Social Sciences at UNIGE and specialist in the effects of digital communication methods on marriage.
The survey was carried out in Switzerland in 2018, among 3,235 people over the age of 18, in couples and having met their partners in the past decade. Gina Potarca examined the intentions of Swiss couples to start a family, their relationship satisfaction and individual well-being, as well as the composition of the couple. ‘‘In éeliminating long questionnaires, self-descriptions and personality testsé of use on dating sites, applications are much easier at use. This has made it possible to standardize the act of online dating and open up its use to cats.éthe youngest gories of the population ", she explains. According to his results, these couples "Have stronger cohabitation intentions than those formed in a non-digital context". In addition, they intend to get married as much as other couples. ‘‘The study does not say whether their final intention was to live together long or short term, but given that there is no difference in the intention to marry, some of these couples probably consider cohabitation as a trial period before marriage '', Gina Potarca analysis.
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More diversity within couples
Another advantage of dating apps is that they promote diversity within couples. The researcher found that these applications encourage mixing of educational levels, especially between female graduates and men with less education, according to UNIGE. By bringing together people from different socio-cultural backgrounds, they allow encounters that would not necessarily have happened in "real life". According to work by MIT (United States) in 2017, the introduction of dating applications in the United States coincided with several leaps in the number of mixed marriages, from 8% in 1990 to 17% in 2015, reports the site Sciences et Avenir.