Online dating? You’ll need to stay in your lane, mate. (Picture: Getty)

Oh hey. Hoping your winning personality will land you a significant other that far outweighs you in the looks department?

Well sorry. Your dreams have just been crushed under the foot of the online dating beast. You will have to settle for someone who’s just as attractive as you are. And you’ll have to be happy about it. Poor you.

You see, the rise of online dating has made it significantly harder to end up dating someone who’s more or less traditionally attractive than you.

Instead you’re more likely than ever to end up with someone of equal physical attractiveness.




But why is this?

This is an equally attractive couple. (Picture: Getty)

Priceonomics explains that while the majority of people do end up dating and marrying partners who are of a similar level of attractiveness to themselves, this rule doesn’t apply to couples who have known each other for a longer period of time before they started dating.

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Previous research has found that couples who met through the context of dating were more likely to be equally attractive than couples who were friends first – in the latter scenario, people rated as, for example, a three out of ten ended up marrying a seven out of ten.

It’s because people’s personalities really do impact how attractive you personally find a person – meaning that you’ll be more open to dating them than you were when you first met them.

Which all sounds kind of lovely, doesn’t it?

So is this. (Picture: Getty)

But here’s the thing. When we online date, all the people we end up talking to are those we’ve met in the context of dating. We’ve already swiped left on anyone we deem to be less attractive than us, and as a result the only matches that really occur are between people of similar levels of physical attractiveness.

Oh.

Add to that the rumours – unconfirmed, but they seem unlikely – that Tinder prioritises the users you see based on the number of right swipes they get (which seemingly show how attractive someone is), and effectively matches people of similar attractiveness on their behalf, and it’s becoming clear that it’s now very, very difficult to get to find someone attractive over time. You won’t even get the chance.

So is this. (Picture: Getty)

This isn’t just a bad thing for those who are hoping to land someone hotter than themselves.

By getting rid of the potential to date people other people don’t find attractive, but we do, we’re increasing the competition around dating.

Priceonomics explain that if we’re all dating strangers, we’ll all be competing for physically attractive people and settling for those equal to us, rather than choosing people we personally find attractive after getting to know them (which would be less competitive, as other people might not appreciate their greatness).

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Does this mean we’re all doomed? Not really. We’re still finding plenty of people to date. It’s just that we might be missing out on loads of people who we’d end up fancying over time, because we’re too quick to swipe left on anyone who doesn’t seem attractive at first glance.



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