You have full access to this open access article. Research using data on offline couple formation has confirmed predictions from evolutionary psychology that women not men attach value to the earnings potential of a potential partner. In this study, we examine whether the partner preferences with respect to earnings potential survive in an online context with fewer search and social frictions.
We did this by means of a field experiment on the popular mobile dating app Tinder. Thirty-two fictitious Tinder profiles that randomly differed in job status and job prestige were evaluated by other, real Tinder users. We find that both men and women do not use job status or job prestige as a determinant of whom to show initial interest in on Tinder.
However, we do find evidence that, after this initial phase, men less frequently start a conversation with women when those women are unemployed.
Still, also then men do not care about the particular job prestige of employed women. Indeed, multiple independent studies using data from the United States have shown that approximately one in five committed relationships and one in six marriages over the past decade have begun through online dating Cacioppo et al. The latest development in online dating is the increasing popularity of mobile dating apps, of which Tinder is the most used. Footnote 1. Despite the ubiquity of mobile dating apps, little is known about what drives partner preferences on these apps.
Indeed, previous research on partner preferences has mainly examined partner preferences in an offline setting. A first contribution of this study to the existing literature is examining whether job status being employed or being unemployed and job prestige have an impact on success on the mobile dating app Tinder.
