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Reward processing -

Humans like looking at people we find attractive. When someone opens a dating app, they're presented with a variety of images of potential love interests.

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Reward processing -

A study by F.C. Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging in the Netherlands found activity in a brain region involved in reward processing is more active when people view attractive faces.

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Nucleus accumbens -

This area of the brain, known as the nucleus accumbens, acts as the neural interface between motivation and action. It plays a key role in food, sex, and stress-related and drug-taking behaviors.

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Unpredictable rewards -

Unpredictable rewards cause even more activity in reward centers of the brain than those we know are coming. An element of unpredictability keeps users curious and hooked.

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Unpredictable rewards -

Consider this effect when using an app like Tinder: similar to a casino slot machine, you never know when you might hit the jackpot.

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Swiping right -

When users swipe right on people on an app, they don't know if they'll match with someone they find attractive. Even if a conversation begins, they don't know if/when a person will respond.

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Swiping right -

Even when they don't have the app open, others can swipe on them, so if the app is opened after a prolonged period of time, there are new matches potentially waiting.

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The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex -

Another part of the brain, called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), seems to be what we engage to regulate options.

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Response to choice -

When responding to choices, the amygdala and ventral striatum are activated. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex holds subjective value, while the DLPFC weights each value against each other.

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How values are weighted -

Factors including delay discounting, cognitive bias, and decreasing satisfaction as consumption increases modify the weight of each value.

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Goal alignment -

Depending on our goals, our DLPFC weights higher value to certain choices that we can make. In other words, self-control may not be a simple case of impulse vs. deliberation.

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Checking dating apps -

If someone holds a strong goal of finding a romantic partner, the DLPFC part of the brain assigns greater weight to checking the apps regularly.

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Spoilt for choice -

Another big issue on dating apps is the sheer volume of choices available. Some psychologists claim having too much choice makes it less likely a decision is made at all.

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Spoilt for choice -

For example, one study by Columbia University found people were more likely to buy a jam when faced with six options instead of 30.

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Spoilt for choice -

Of those people who had made a purchase, people who had been given fewer options reported greater levels of satisfaction with their choice afterwards.

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Changes in the brain response -

In some studies, it's been suggested that the longer the interaction with dating apps, the more the brain adapts in response to them.

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Changes in the brain response -

The reward and learning pathway in the brain has been linked to the chemical dopamine in the brain. Dopamine releases a pleasant sensation in response to a reward.

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Dopamine response -

However, over time, more and more dopamine neuron firing occurs in response to the reward predictor instead of the the reward itself.

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Cue and reward -

In other words, the cue that predicts the reward gets more dopamine firing. Knowing what's going to happen releases more happy chemicals than the actual reward itself.

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Cue and reward -

Dating apps can hijack a user's reward-learning brain pathway. At first, a release of dopamine is likely to occur once the person has viewed who the match is.

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Dopamine surge -

But, over time, it becomes more likely the person will experience a surge of dopamine just from receiving the notification. The brain has adapted to associate it with learning about a match.

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Addictive? -

Does this process mean dating apps are addictive? They're run by companies, whose goal is to make money. The more time spent on the app, the more money is made.

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Addictive? -

Dopamine is involved in a number of addictive processes, but there is still much we don't know about the outcome of what takes place on dating apps and their effects on users.

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Lawsuit -

On Valentine's Day in 2024, a group of six people filed a lawsuit against Match Group (owner of Tinder, Hinge, and other popular dating apps and sites) claiming their "addictive, game-like" features were made to "lock users into a perpetual pay-to-play loop."

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Lawsuit -

Match Group denies the allegation, saying they strive to "get people on dates every day and off our apps," according to a company spokesperson.

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Altering social interactions, or facilitating them? -

Molly Crockett, a neuroscientist at Yale University, wrote a paper about dating applications in response to recent outrage. In it, she noted these apps provide a platform for existing human behavior, rather than altering it.

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Making lives easier -

Dating app creators, likewise, claim they are making people's lives easier without changing them or hacking our neurobiology.

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Love is less profitable -

However, if this was truly the case, many of the app's business models wouldn't make any money. They survive as long as users keep swiping.

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The search continues -

For many, dating apps are convenient and a way to get rid of boredom, temporarily at least. They offer at worst temporary gratification and, at best, a shot at finding someone special. Their appeal might rise and fall, and they might be hacking the brain's reward pathways, but they're more than likely here to stay.

Sources: (National Geographic) (Psychology Today) (The Guardian) (Pew Research Center)

See also: Your love language, according to your zodiac

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