First Impressions & Tinder

Tinder is all about fast impressions. You view people’s profiles and make a decision based on your spontaneous fast judgements in the first 30 seconds. Tinder has changed dating through reduced cues and increased control. There is no nonverbal communication to pick up on, and due to the control of the user and the nature of the app, people can only see a limited amount of information about each other. (Ward, 2017). The sheer number of options and the limited information available allows users to form first impressions quicker than ever.

But, did you know that the fast impressions you make shape future potential matches? Through making a series of choices based on your first impression of people’s profiles, the dating pool is actually narrowed down according to your first impressions of others and others first impression of you. This means that your first impression of potential Tinder matches, and the choice of swiping left or right determines who comes up in the future. Additionally, the people you attract to swipe right or the people who swipe left on you also determines which profiles are on your feed.

According to Tinder (2019), changes are made to the potential matches you see based on your recent activity (whether you swipe left or right). As Tiffany (2019) explains “the algorithms evolved once Tinder had enough users with enough user history to predict who would like whom, based solely on the way’s users select many of the same profiles as other users who are similar to them, and the way one user’s behaviour can predict another’s”.

This doesn’t mean that a higher match rate puts you in a better scope of desirability, it simply means that the algorithm puts people who would most likely match in the same scope. And who you are likely to match with is largely determined by the first impressions you make in the first 30 seconds of seeing a new profile.

So how do you make a good first impression on Tinder?

Since you can only provide limited information before matching, pre-match impression construction and management is more important than ever for securing a face to face meeting. Success is defined by your profile and mutual swipes you get from it, and it’s all about how you want others to see you. The process of creating a profile is a form of impression construction, since you construct the impression that you want others to see. "Every Tinder user must construct an impression” (Ward. 2017, p. 1651).

According to Ward (2017, p. 1645), “impression management begins with choosing one’s profile photos”. The number of photos you have is also crucial. More profile pictures significantly increase the chances of matching. Similarly, a profile with a bio gets 4x more matches (MIT Technology Review, 2016).

Self-presentation is primarily done through photos and a bio. A study found that most users construct their impression as positively as possible, representing somewhere between “an ideal and an authentic self-presentation”. Making themselves appear more attractive to potential partners, while maintaining plausibility if a face to face meeting were to occur.

Moreover, impression management is also affected by other profiles that users see (Ward, 2017). A study suggests that a mirroring of self-presentation with one’s potential matches occurs, as users overwhelmingly reported searching for people like them (Ward, 2017). So, using different strategies to construct and manage your impression, while maintaining a sense of truth is essential for landing in the scope as similar people to you.

For tips on making a successful first impression after you match with someone on Tinder, check out this article: How to make a good first impression when starting a conversation on Tinder.

References

MIT Technology Review 2016, ‘How Tinder “Feedback Loop” Forces Men and Women into Extreme Strategies’, MIT Technology Review, https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601909/how-tinder-feedback-loop-forces-men-and-women-into-extreme-strategies/.

Tiffany, K. ‘2019, The Tinder algorithm, explained’, Vox, https://www.vox.com/2019/2/7/18210998/tinder-algorithm-swiping-tips-dating-app-science.

Tinder 2019, ‘Powering Tinder® — The Method Behind Our Matching’, Tinder, https://blog.gotinder.com/powering-tinder-r-the-method-behind-our-matching/.

Ward, J. 2017, ‘What are you doing on Tinder? Impression management on a matchmaking mobile app’, Information, Communication & Society, Vol. 20, No. 11, pp. 1644-1659.