Swipe right. A term that meant literally nothing 10 years ago, but today comes loaded with the hope of finding love, or at least a decent date for Thursday night it's the new Friday. But have you ever wondered how the smiling faces on your dating app made it to your feed? It turns out that one of the key ingredients of the matching algorithm isn't about your favorite music, or your number one love language.
It comes down to your location. Though this may seem arbitrary, there's both good logic and science backing it up. Research has repeatedly shown that proximity is one of the most powerful variables that leads to attraction. This is known as the proximity or propinquity effect and put plainly, you're more likely to form a relationship with people you're physically or psychologically close to.
Even the researchers who didn't think proximity was the most important factor in long-term relationships still conceded that it's vitally important at the early stages of forming a bond. And it turns out that research on distance in relationships lends even more support to the proximity effect. The participants reported that the hardest part was around the four-month mark — just when most relationships are in their honeymoon phase.
As they say, the proof of the proximity question is in the pudding. We know that half of all year olds use dating apps , while an estimated So we have lots of people looking for love, but what about their success rate?
Though they sound like myths when whispered about over cocktails, there are indeed some people who've found love on an app. In a study conducted by online wedding planners The Knot , they found that almost a quarter of the 10, recently-married couples they interviewed had met online.
