Social Anxiety Dating App
A study finds that social anxiety and depression lead to a greater use of dating apps and affect what people hope to gain from them.
Here are 5 online dating tips for someone with social anxiety! Understand Various Apps. When getting involved with dating apps for the first time, you may find yourself getting overwhelmed with all the available options. Because of this, it’s best to take the time to learn about all the common dating apps and sites people use. People who frequently use dating apps might have more symptoms of social anxiety and depression, a new study found. Published in the peer-reviewed journal, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, the study evaluated the relationship between social anxiety, depression, and dating app use. 'This study is the first to empirically demonstrate a positive correlation between dating app use and symptoms of social anxiety and depression,' says Ariella Lenton-Brym, a PhD student in. Nov 03, 2020 Lenton-Brym and colleagues set out to explore links between dating app use, social anxiety and depression. They recruited 374 volunteers from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to complete online.
Pew Research Center data released in February this year indicate that, in the United States, as many as 30% of adults have used a dating site or app.
According to a Statista survey, in the first quarter of 2020, Tinder, the most popular of these apps, had more than 6 million subscribers.
There are numerous reasons for using a dating app. Now, a new study from Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, looks specifically at the link between social anxiety, depression, and dating apps.
According to this research, there is a link between social anxiety and depression and a more extensive use of dating apps.
“With increased symptoms of social anxiety and depression, women may be even more likely to turn to technology for social connection, especially if alternative forms of social contact are reduced due to social avoidance.”
– Senior author Martin Antony, from Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada
The study appears in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
Previous research suggests there are six things people who use Tinder hope to attain. These “Tinder motives” are:
- love
- casual sex
- ease of communication
- self-worth validation
- thrill of excitement
- trendiness
The prevailing theory tested in the new research is the positive link between social anxiety and depression with a greater use of dating apps. In addition, the researchers predicted positive associations between social anxiety and depression and a desire for:
- ease of communication for men, due to the anxiety associated with asking potential partners for a date, traditionally perceived as a male responsibility
- love, equally for both genders
- self-worth validation, equally for both genders
- the thrill of excitement, especially for men
- casual sex, especially for men
The study authors also predicted a negative association between social anxiety, depression, and contacting dating app matches equally for both genders.
A total of 374 individuals who use dating apps were recruited for the study and responded to questions posed through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform.
There were no inclusion or exclusion criteria, and each person received $1 for taking part in the study.
The researchers asked participants to fill out the 17-question Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), in which a person describes the anxiety they have experienced in social situations over the past week. Researchers recognize the SPIN survey for its usefulness as a psychometric measure.
In addition, individuals completed the equally well-regarded 21-question Depression Anxiety Stress Scales survey for measuring anxiety, depression symptoms, and stress.
Participants also completed the Tinder Motives Scale survey that tracked the importance of five of the six Tinder motives to the individual. The research team did not include trendiness because they considered the survey ineffective for measuring its significance.
The scientists measured individuals’ use of dating apps through the Online Dating Inventory questionnaire to assess their use and behavior.
The researchers found that social anxiety and depression are not interchangeable, and were variously linked, or not, with different motives for using dating apps.
The researchers’ general hypothesis was deemed correct: social anxiety and depression do appear to be associated with greater dating app use. Beyond that, the authors of the study drew a variety of conclusions.
They found that:
- Social anxiety and depression are associated with the use of dating apps for ease of communication by both genders, though the effect is more pronounced for women.
- Women with social anxiety are more likely to be interested in obtaining love through dating apps. Depression did not affect whether people were looking for this, for either men or women.
- Dating apps are used for self-worth validation by people of both genders with social anxiety. This was also true of people with depression, with a stronger effect in women than men.
- Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, there was a positive link between social anxiety and the thrill of excitement for women, though not for women living with depression, and not for men.
- There was an association between social anxiety in men and women with an effort to obtain casual sex. This was also true in people living with depression, with a stronger effect in women.
The researchers also discovered a negative correlation between social anxiety and depression in men and the likelihood that they would actually contact a person who turned out to be a match. The likelihood a woman would initiate contact was not affected at all by their level of depression.
The study authors point out that they cannot know whether social anxiety and depression lead to greater dating app use or the other way around, suggesting this open question would benefit from further research.
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People who experience social anxiety and depression are more likely to use dating apps – but there’s a twist.
Males in this category are less likely to initiate contact with a potential match identified by the app, according to a Canadian study. So even though they use the apps freely, this might fail to translate into actual social interaction.
“If so, they could be exposing themselves to the potential negative consequences of dating app use without reaping the purported benefits,” says Ariella Lenton-Brym, from Ryerson University.
There is, of course, a basic conundrum. Being in an intimate relationship can help socially anxious individuals come out of their shells, but asking someone out can be a daunting prospect.
Dating apps offer the chance to kick things off online – and a big pool of potential partners – but also have their downsides.
They might expose people to disproportionate experiences of rejection and lead to depression, for instance. Other research suggests lonely or socially anxious people may become more addicted to them.
Lenton-Brym and colleagues set out to explore links between dating app use, social anxiety and depression.
They recruited 374 volunteers from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to complete online questionnaires assessing symptoms of social anxiety and depression and engagement with dating apps and other users. They also explored motivations for using the apps.
Previous work had found that people have different motivations for using the Tinder dating app – love, casual sex, ease of communication, self-worth validation, thrill of excitement and trendiness – and it’s not surprising that these vary between men and women.
While others have found that men were more likely to embrace ease of communication, thrill of excitement and casual sex, Lenton-Brym and team only found a gender difference for casual sex in their sample.
Investigating further, they found strong associations between motivations and mental health in female users.
Women reported links between social anxiety and love, thrill of excitement and casual sex, and stronger connections between depressive symptoms and ease of communication, self-worth validation, thrill of excitement and casual sex.
Overall, the authors hasten to note that the findings are correlational.
Therefore, they write, “we cannot determine whether individuals with elevated symptoms of [social anxiety] and depression are more likely to use [dating apps], or if individuals become more socially anxious and depressed as a consequence of their [dating app] use.”
Social Anxiety Dating App
The paper is published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking.