Science Advocacy
Science Advocacy
“Get Tinder, everyone has it!” I hear that from my peers too many times. “All you need to do is sit back, relax, and swipe!”
For those who don’t know: Tinder is a location-based social dating app that has over 50 million users worldwide1 and it works through a simple principle: look at a person’s pictures and swipe right if you’re interested, or swipe left if you’re not. On Tinder, everyone can have virtual autonomy and the opportunity to select their potential dating mates based on their pictures.
As a biologist, the big questions I have are: What do evolutionary and neurobiological theories tell us about the most common parts of the online dating process? Although culture and heritage highly influence the perception of beauty and the visual aspects of attraction, some studies suggest that our preferences may be influenced by evolutionary biology. So, let’s explore the steps from getting a match on Tinder to the actual date, and see what evolutionary and neurobiological theories can tell us about the dating process.
The first step on Tinder is getting a match with an individual you perceive as “attractive,” and generally, that means looking at their face and physique. So, the question is: why are some people flush with matches, while others languish? Professor Gillian Rhodes from University of Western Australia is an expert on the evolutionary psychology of beauty,2 and she suggests that sexual dimorphism provides a good explanation for the different biologically-based beauty standards for both men and women cross culturally.
Sexual dimorphism refers to physiological and behavioral differences between males and females that play a role in sexual selection (i.e., of one sex preferring a certain characteristic in a person of the other sex). For example, in males, testosterone stimulates the growth of the jaw, cheekbones, and facial hair during puberty, while the growth of these traits is hindered by estrogen in females. According to Dr. Rhodes, masculinity in male faces and femininity in female faces could be desirable traits from a biological standpoint. Masculine traits (or basically looking like Brad Pitt or Jamie Dornan) may be a signal of dominance and status that enhances a man’s perceived value as a mate. Conversely, strongly exaggerated feminine features (smaller chin, fuller lips, smaller lower face area) are thought to increase female attractiveness to males.
Dr. Rhodes work is hypothetical and, therefore it’s important to keep in mind that this is a theory without full research support. There has been controversy surrounding attempts to empirically identify attractiveness. Some studies tackle this issue from a perspective of individual preferences rather than from a population standpoint3. Another caveat in defining “beauty” is that most evolutionary psychologists perform research from a heteronormative viewpoint (i.e. from the perspective that heterosexuality is the fundamental sexual orientation), and consequently, the bulk of the literature assesses things from that perspective. While it is frustrating that the majority of studies in this area are so focused on heteronormativity (thereby excluding wide swathes of the human experience), it does limit what we can say about these things from a scientific perspective.
Once you have a match on Tinder, the next step is starting a conversation – but how does one go from visual appeal to genuine interest? You may have heard of “Pavlov’s Dog” or the principle of “Pavlovian conditioning” which are related to the research of the Russian physiology researcher Ivan Pavlov. Pavlovian conditioning (also called “classical conditioning”) is the idea that behavior can be changed by associating a particular behavior with a particular stimulus. Pavlov’s most famous experiment involved training dogs to associate food with the sound of a bell or metronome so that the dogs would salivate whenever they heard the bell or metronome, even when there was no food present. In case of online dating, sexual arousal (a biologically potent stimulus) becomes paired with hearing a Tinder notification (a previously neutral stimulus).
The anticipation of receiving a text message from your match stimulates the dopaminergic reward pathway in a manner similar to drugs of abuse. That is because your brain doesn’t know the difference between the excitement of waiting for a text and the excitement of certain drugs. Just like a Pavlovian canine is trained to drool at the sound of a bell, a similar behavior is paired among Tinder users. Once you hear a Tinder notification, your brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for (among other things) the sensations of sexual arousal, motivation, and gratification.
Ok, you’re finally meeting your Tinder date in person – this is by far the most stressful step in online dating, which highly affects your autonomic nervous system – the nervous system responsible for unconscious bodily functions such as breathing or heartbeat. Before the date, your sympathetic nervous system (responsible for the so-called “Four F’s” of stress: flight, fight, fear and… “reproduction”) kicks in, increasing your heart rate and dumping a cocktail of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol into your blood stream, leaving you feeling anxious and excited.
Now, what if your date is attractive and greets you with a genuine smile? Similar pathways are activated, except a different cocktail mix of hormones are involved. Your excitement and happiness will be bolstered by endorphins, dopamine and serotonin.
So, why do people tend to have first dates at bars? The answer is alcohol. Through ages, people have found ways to manage an overactive sympathetic nervous system. In non-scientific terms, this is why alcohol is sometimes known as ‘liquid courage.” Of course, there are plenty of other ways to manage anxiety (i.e., sympathetic arousal) without alcohol – so maybe look into those first. (Have you tried meditation?) Nevertheless, this is the science behind why dates often meet at a bar: alcohol is implicated in the effects of an inhibitory neurotransmitter called γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA, for short). GABA can inhibit certain pathways in the sympathetic nervous system, thus, resulting in relaxing and anti-anxiety effects.
So, what happens when you actually meet your Tinder date and they don’t look as expected? In fact, what if your date appears hideous and troubled (constituting a negative or aversive stimulus)? In this case, your date’s image is taken up by your eyes and sent to your visual cortex for processing. The visual cortex sends signals of distress throughout your entire brainin effect, says: “Oh dear. What should I do?!” This activates your limbic system (responsible for your emotions) which, in turn, activates our old friend, the sympathetic nervous system. A moment later your brain notifies your entire body via a stress-hormone dump into your bloodstream that you are in trouble. You begin feeling goosebumps and you may find yourself running back to your car hoping that your date doesn’t see you – these are all responses driven by your sympathetic nervous system.
It is clear that both Pavlovian conditioning, as well as neurotransmitters and hormones, play a role in online dating. If you are aware of this as a Tinder user, you can consciously exert greater control over your behavior and make better decisions during online mate selection.
However, as Margaret Wolfe Hunderford wrote in one of her novels: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Sometimes the most elaborate neuropsychology theories and dissecting their underlying pathways cannot explain why we are attracted to a particular person.
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