Income inequality is on the rise, and this time, economists are coming for the dating apps.
A recent National Post article explains how modern dating preferences, driven by dating apps, have contributed to income inequality. Research and census data show that income distribution among the American population has further widened since the 1980s, and our dating apps are partially to blame.
It’s hard to comprehend how swiping on Hinge or Tinder can possibly cause income inequality—the uneven distribution of income across a given population—between those who state their education in their bio and those who don’t.
To make its claim, the article links education, a common criterion on dating app profiles, to a new tendency for s to select romantic partners who are more like themselves. Perhaps opposites don’t attract anymore.
Rather than giving us a reason to fret about the state of our economy, this study should serve as a lesson on proper methodology. It’s one thing to link income inequality with people’s preference for marrying someone with a similar education and earning prospects to themselves. But it’s another to state that these trends stem from online dating.
The validity alarm bells are sounding—ask anyone who’s attended a Queen’s PSYC 100: Principles of Psychology lecture, and they can tell you correlation doesn’t equal causation.
There’s no doubt the dating game has changed. Meeting people isn’t what it was in the 1980s due to new technology. We can learn a lot about others before even meeting them, simply by scrolling through their dating profiles and social media, if they have any. Often, we use these factors as indicators of compatibility, eliminating those who don’t share our desired qualities and thus narrowing our options down to “the one.” But that’s all dating apps are—a mediator between real people.
The process of seeking a suitable partner isn’t much different offline, and neither is our sentiment toward sharing similarities. Despite what the article says, seeking partners with the same education is nothing new.
Dating apps just streamline information we’d otherwise discover organically. The apps may facilitate s differently, but our evaluation of potential partners and choice to date them, in the end, is inevitably the same whether on or offline.
The point is, there are many factors to consider when understanding what’s driving similar individuals to pair up. For instance, sharing an educational background can imply factors like having shared experiences, common interests, and mutual friends. Conversely, marrying someone with the same education doesn’t necessarily guarantee a particular future. Income inequality isn’t a single faceted problem, so it shouldn’t be treated as such.
While it may be true we place more emphasis on education as an indicator of financial security, it’s not because dating apps have made us more selective. Societal values and perspectives have naturally wired us to think this way.
It’s insightful to see how modern dating reflects a shift in our values and preferences for romantic partners. However, if the economists are truly concerned with tackling income inequality, they’re better off looking for data elsewhere and perhaps in more than one place.
Unless society stops emphasizing education and financial security as essential to households and relationships, people, whether on the apps or not, will continue searching for partners based on these entirely valid criteria and values. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
—Journal Editorial Board
Tags
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be ed, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to [email protected].