Exploring the role of information in personal risk assessment on dating apps

Abstract

With the rise of dating apps, relationships and connections are being made online before meeting in person. While it has its benefits, dating apps are have also increased the risks which are predominantly women targeted such as online harassment, assault, and catfishing. This study focuses on how information can be considered by females to reduce risk within dating apps. This study takes a quantitative approach to explore these differences in association with personality traits and adult attachment styles using the Big Five Inventory-10 (2007) and the Revised Adult Attachment Scale (1996). The sample was made of 108 participants which were recruited using a convenient snowballing sample method. This study concludes that there is a relationship between information and the individual’s perception of the profile, where informative profiles that include the individual’s interests and occupation are more likely to be perceived as genuine than empty profiles. However, when examining the perception of safety and swiping patterns in association with information/empty profile results concluded that there is no significant relationship that can be explained. Furthermore, while the literature suggests that certain personality traits and adult attachment styles are more likely to make use of dating apps, in this study, there were no indication of a relationship between the two variables. Further research on a larger scale and with different variables is recommended.