Posted May 28, Reviewed by Jessica Schrader. Dating apps and websites have made it easier than ever to meet someone new. One study found that about one-third of marriages now begin online.
About 72 percent of college students use Tinder, and 80 percent of Tinder users are millennials. We like looking at hot people. When users open Tinder, they are presented with an array of images. A study led by Vasily Klucharev from the F. Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging in the Netherlands found that activity in the nucleus accumbens, a brain region involved in reward processing, is more active when people view attractive faces.
People also believe that attractive people are more intelligent, sociable, competent, friendly, and trustworthy. Even mothers are swayed by looks: A study by developmental psychologist Judith Langlois found that mothers are more affectionate toward attractive babies. Because of this bias , there are now services that allow users to upload photos that anonymous people rate. Services such as Photofeeler provide rating services for those who want to look attractive, or professional, or fun.
And consider the element of unpredictable rewards associated with the use of Tinder. Unpredictable rewards cause more activity in reward regions of the brain than rewards we know are coming.
Casino slot machines are one example of this effect at work. Players do not know when, while pulling a lever or pressing a button, they will hit a jackpot. They play knowing that eventually, but not exactly when, someone who pulls the lever will win.
