Written by Alicia Spidel and the Research Committee
This article by Lyons and colleagues looks at motivations for using Tinder and their associations with the Dark Tetrad of personality traits. Tinder is a location-based, real-time application that allows people to easily and spontaneously communicate and, if desired, meet up. On-line dating applications, like Tinder, are a popular tool for beginning relationships. Other than initiating relationships these applications are used for many other reasons such as hook-ups for casual sex, thrill seeking, self-validation, peer pressure, and passing time. These uses depend on a host of individual differences, such as age, sex, and personality.
The Dark Tetrad is a group of four inter-related, yet distinctive personality traits, which include Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism. Characteristics of low empathy and callousness are said to be at the core of the Dark Tetrad. The four inter-related traits also have some components that are specific to each one. Narcissism is linked to attitudes of superiority and a sense of entitlement. Scheming and long-term manipulative strategizing are unique to Machiavellianism. Those higher in psychopathy traits display more emotional coldness and anti-social behaviours, and people with sadistic traits show cruelty and appear to take pleasure in hurting others.
Sexual behavior is one area where previous researchers have looked at the Dark Tetrad traits. For example, researchers have found that those who score high on the Dark Tetrad traits tend to prefer short-term relationships that have very little commitment and are more likely to use Tinder to obtain casual sex whilst already in a relationship. Anti-social online behaviors that are common in individuals with Dark Tetrad traits include cyberstalking, computer-mediated sexual violence, sending explicit unsolicited sexual images and trolling. Social approval and distraction have also been linked to Tinder use and the Dark Tetrad traits. Researchers found that, in non-single Tinder users, social approval was the primary motive for using Tinder among people high in narcissism and Machiavellianism, but, among people high in psychopathy and Machiavellianism, casual sex was a motive. In addition, use of Tinder as a distraction was related to narcissism.
This study looked at the Dark Tetrad of personality and different motives for using Tinder while controlling for some of the factors that prior studies have found to be related to use of Tinder such as sex, age, and trolling tendencies. Two hundred and sixteen current or former Tinder users completed online scales for Tinder use motivations and for the Dark Tetrad personality traits. Several gender differences were found with men scoring higher on all the Dark Tetrad traits and on sexual motives for using Tinder. Women were more likely than men to use Tinder to get back at their ex-partner or in response to peer pressure. Using Tinder for acquiring sexual experience and distracting oneself from other tasks (e.g., procrastination) were linked to psychopathy. Respondents scoring higher on Machiavellianism used Tinder for acquiring social or flirting skills, for social approval, in response to peer pressure, and to pass the time or alleviate boredom. Sadism was not related to any specific Tinder motivation. Interestingly, the only association between narcissism and use of Tinder was that those scoring lower on narcissism reported using Tinder to improve social or flirting skills.
There were some limitations to the study, such as using online self report data and the fact that researchers could not establish whether these differences in motivation had any real-life implications such as leading to some form of social or sexual success. Despite these limitations, this study suggests that individuals using these sites should be aware of the risks involved and be aware of the diverse range of motives Tinder users have including those with psychopathic traits seeking short-term sexual hook-ups.
Keywords: psychopathic traits, Tinder use, online dating, motivations, Dark Tetrad
Reference: Lyons, M., Messenger, A., Perry, R., & Brewer, G. (2020). The Dark Tetrad in Tinder: hook-up app for high psychopathy individuals, and a diverse utilitarian tool for Machiavellians? Current Psychology, 1-8.
