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Translation: When people use Tinder, they behave in the way that the user interface encourages them to. Because Tinder was built with assumptions about dating

Translation: When people use Tinder, they behave in the way that the user interface encourages them to. Because Tinder was built with assumptions about dating that are socially conservative, the behavior that the app encourages is behavior which conforms to socially conservative ideas about dating. Because the people who promote these socially conservative ideas like to wrap them in a veneer of pseudoscience, they claim that Tinder reinforces “ancient” behavior. (Great source on the pseudoscience part: “Delusions of Gender” by Dr. Cordelia Fine. Plenty of others exist. And while I know the pseudoscience part might be controversial to some on here, I hope at least the idea that user interfaces guide user behavior is not.)

aaron-lebo 9y ago
What notions of dating on Tinder are socially conservative? At least 50% of the people on there are on there to get laid (the women, too). I'd say about 10% of the profiles you come across are polyamorous/transgender individuals, which would have been unheard of 10 years ago. And that's in the middle of the Bible Belt.
- trendia 9y ago
  (I'm not advocating, just explaining) The person you're replying to is referring to the study, which found that men rated women on appearance, while women rated men on career prospects. This is the "socially conservative" aspect they're referring to. When I first read the comment, I assumed they meant "conservative views on dating", like the disapproval of sex before marriage, which is opposite to what Tinder enables / advocates.
jerf 9y ago
"Because Tinder was built with assumptions about dating that are socially conservative" Really? I suspect that most of the people who built Tinder would probably get personally offended if you called them "socially conservative", just going off of basic statistics. I think the "socially conservative Tinder" is the Tinder that never existed at all because the founders laughed the idea off, or a company that pivoted to something else hard once they realized they accidentally built a hookup app. Not the Tinder that exists.
- eternalban 9y ago
  Per the "gender" input in the GP, socially "conservative" likely means "enforcing the social construct of gender". These are interesting times.
dri_ft 9y ago
Your comment isn't very clear, as it's not clear what "socially conservative" assumptions you're alluding to. (As others have pointed out, casual sex, which as I understand is Tinder's main use case, isn't generally looked highly upon by those of a conservative stance.) If you're saying that Tinder's interface in some way encourages the assymetries the article mentions--men judging more on appearance and women judging more on career prospects, etc.--then perhaps you should explain how, because as far as I know the interface works the same for men and women.

aaron-lebo 9y ago

What notions of dating on Tinder are socially conservative? At least 50% of the people on there are on there to get laid (the women, too). I'd say about 10% of the profiles you come across are polyamorous/transgender individuals, which would have been unheard of 10 years ago. And that's in the middle of the Bible Belt.

trendia 9y ago
(I'm not advocating, just explaining) The person you're replying to is referring to the study, which found that men rated women on appearance, while women rated men on career prospects. This is the "socially conservative" aspect they're referring to. When I first read the comment, I assumed they meant "conservative views on dating", like the disapproval of sex before marriage, which is opposite to what Tinder enables / advocates.

jerf 9y ago

"Because Tinder was built with assumptions about dating that are socially conservative" Really? I suspect that most of the people who built Tinder would probably get personally offended if you called them "socially conservative", just going off of basic statistics. I think the "socially conservative Tinder" is the Tinder that never existed at all because the founders laughed the idea off, or a company that pivoted to something else hard once they realized they accidentally built a hookup app. Not the Tinder that exists.

eternalban 9y ago
Per the "gender" input in the GP, socially "conservative" likely means "enforcing the social construct of gender". These are interesting times.

dri_ft 9y ago

Your comment isn't very clear, as it's not clear what "socially conservative" assumptions you're alluding to. (As others have pointed out, casual sex, which as I understand is Tinder's main use case, isn't generally looked highly upon by those of a conservative stance.) If you're saying that Tinder's interface in some way encourages the assymetries the article mentions--men judging more on appearance and women judging more on career prospects, etc.--then perhaps you should explain how, because as far as I know the interface works the same for men and women.