Do we all want to date somebody ‘out of our league’? How online dating is contributing to income inequality
IndependentSep 21
Study: Dating Apps Lead to US Income Inequality
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Above: Bumble on App Store is seen in this illustration photo taken in Poland on August 8, 2024. Image copyright: NurPhoto/Contributor/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Facts
A new joint study from the US Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis, Mo., and Dallas, Texas, alongside Haverford College, has linked dating apps to at least half of the increase in income inequality from 1980-2020.
The study, which compared data on married couples from 1960 and 1980 with those from 2008-2021, found that women in the online dating era began a slight shift toward prioritizing men's ages while men focused a little more on education levels.
The Spin
Narrative A
Despite attempts to create the best profile pictures or inquisitive taglines, higher class individuals still notice specific cultural and linguistic differences in their online peers, prompting them to stay away from certain potential matches. For all its efforts, the digital dating industry has yet to conquer the inherent discriminatory nature of human beings.
Narrative B
While everyone wants to fix income inequality, the solution is likely not to change how human beings date. Despite popular claims to the contrary, humans naturally mate based on similar religions, cultures, education levels, and intelligence levels. Factors that play far less of a role, albeit not 100% of the time, include personality traits like extroversion.
