"Effect of Digital Affordances on Attraction" by Brianna Lane
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Abstract

Dating has changed significantly in the past 30 years. New methods of finding a partner have evolved with the changing media and online dating sites influence these communication processes. In this experiment, we examined how digital affordances influenced attraction. Participants (n = 315) were randomly assigned to view an online dating profile from either eHarmony, Tinder, or Craigslist and asked to report their romantic, social, and physical attraction. Our results indicated the language, the website, and the sex of the profile owner influence romantic attraction. Additionally, the language and the website influence social attraction and the photograph influences physical attraction. We argue that digital affordances of disparate dating sites are not equal to one another, as design differences influence how users interpret the romantic, social, and physical attraction of online dating profiles; considering the recent closure of Craigslist’s dating section, the future of romantic, social, and physical attraction may increasingly be bound to the technical pressures of an increasingly photo-centric online dating industry.

Journal Title

Iowa Journal of Communication

Volume

52

Issue

1

First Page

86

Last Page

106

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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