Key Takeaways
- Male Tinder users are more likely than women to have sex on a Tinder date, according to a 2024 study.
- These male users are more likely than female users to possess psychopathic traits, suggesting a correlation between successful Tinder users and psychopathy.
- With their swipe models and highly visual UIs, apps like Tinder are designed for casual hookup-seekers — and may appeal to those with psychopathic traits.
Fun, casual hookups are Tinder’s bread and butter, and its most loyal users — you’re picturing a non-committable millennial male, aren’t you? — share the app’s reputation for prioritizing flings over long-term connections. And now we have scientific evidence to prove it.
In a 2024 study titled “Dating App Users: Interpersonal Styles and Self-Reported Mating Success,” researchers Lennart Freyth and Peter K. Jonason found that male Tinder users are more likely (66%) than female Tinder users (34%) to have sex on a Tinder date.
But it was the personalities of the men and women in the study that really came as a surprise. Researchers found that men who engage in “Tinder sex” (sex on a Tinder date) are “more psychopathic” than their female counterparts.
In other words, they scored higher on three traits directly linked to psychopathic behavior: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, or the “dark triad,” as these traits are known in psychology circles.
This aligns with the study’s conclusion that people who have Tinder sex are more open to casual flings and impulsive hookups, which Freyth and Jonason dubbed a “faster life strategy.”
“We found that individuals with a fast-life strategy exhibited in their interpersonal, sexual, and search styles had greater mating success,” according to the study.
Freyth told DatingNews that these daters have a “tendency for immediate gratification,” a need that is met by Tinder’s fast-paced, vibrant, and visual design. The app’s classic swipe-based model has been replicated ad nauseam, suggesting that other dating apps could also meet the needs of a user with psychopathic traits and sex on the brain.
“The most interesting result for me was the theoretical framework,” Freyth told us. “Considering dating apps like Hinge, Tinder, or Bumble as digital leks [or a place where males gather to perform courtship displays] makes it easier to understand why we consistently find these tendencies for casual sex among dating app users.”
Manipulative Men Have More Success on Apps Than IRL
Do dating apps contribute to society’s modern nonchalant attitude about sex? The researchers suggested they might.
“This explains why the individual woman might enjoy the uncommitted hook-up lifestyle, but at the same time we lower the societal cost of sex for the first time in human history — leading to a crisis in finding a long-term partnership,” Freyth said.
It’s not necessarily that these individuals move quickly through relationships, but that they prefer surface-level hookups over in-depth connections.
This, according to the study, could be why these men are drawn to the fast-paced anonymity of dating apps: “Surprisingly, psychopathic men in general report fewer sexual partners, but appear to find more partners on dating apps.”
How to account for the psychopathic male’s dating app success? The study chalked it up to these mens’ knack for observation, and perhaps even manipulation:
“Psychopathic men might be better in identifying women who are open for uncommitted sexual encounters, arrange dates with them, and, based on their strong desire, focus on the date’s outcome.”
It helps that this type of man is also more willing to posture on the apps, in a matter of speaking. Those with a “fast life strategy” are typically more successful on Tinder because they have honed interpersonal skills despite their psychopathic traits — or, more likely, because of them.
“Psychopathy may not only indicate an exploitative sexual strategy but also could be a tactic to identify vulnerable individuals open for interpersonal exploitation,” the researchers posited.
Charm, approachability, and open-mindedness are essential to landing dates and hookups, and these are three traits that people with psychopathic personalities may be able to replicate.
That explains why a dating app is an ideal place for men with psychopathic traits to look for hookups; people say exactly what they want on their profiles, taking guesswork out of the equation. Plus, some people may find it easier to manipulate someone from behind a screen.
Freyth and Jonason highlighted how Tinder’s “highly visual” UI is designed to keep both male and female users loyal to the app. “These apps attract individuals who tend toward uncommitted sex, who lower their standards, and use them more intensely –– especially women who use visual platforms longer than men do.”
Psychopathic Traits Can Look Innocuous on Dating Apps
Regardless of gender, 84% of the surveyed individuals who went on Tinder dates ended up having sex, according to the study. Do these women have psychopathic traits, too? Not according to the researchers.
Unlike the men in the study, who generally showed stronger signs of psychopathy and desires for sex, it’s not clear why some of these women hooked up with their Tinder dates.
“Women who reported more Tinder-sex tended to lower their standards,” Freyth pointed out. But the researchers also suggested that female empowerment could play a role.
And don’t fall for the whole “bad boy” stereotype, either. Movies will have you believe that psychopathic individuals are so charming, that they can get anyone to fall into bed with them. Justin Lehmiller, Ph.D., told DatingNews that this hyperbolized image only contains a variable kernel of truth.
“There are several studies out there finding that people with psychopathic traits do have a tendency to be seen as more attractive, at least initially,” he said. “When working with minimal information (which is what we usually have on dating apps), these traits can easily be mistaken for being talkative and confident.”
When Tinder couples eventually meet in person, psychopathic traits can become more apparent — not that people don’t still end up in bed together, as Freyth and Jonason’s study shows. But Dr. Lehmiller cautions against drawing the wrong conclusions.
“The conclusion from this research shouldn’t be that ‘people want to be in relationships with psychopaths.’ Rather, it’s that people with these traits are often good at coming across as a ‘charmer’ upon first meeting because they’re eager to say the ‘right’ thing in order to get what they want,” he explained.
Although not every casual hookup-seeker has psychopathic tendencies, Freyth and Jonason’s study suggests that men with personality traits that align with the dark triad are more likely found on apps like Tinder than on dating apps geared toward serious relationships.
For developers who want to create an open-minded, welcoming, and safe dating app environment for casual daters, Freyth and Jonason’s findings are something to think about.
