While the study focused primarily on women, results found that it was only the male respondents that said they suffered from low self-esteem. With that said, the researchers acknowledge that this paper is an initial baby step in studying the effects of using Tinder and other such apps.
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“We found that being actively involved with Tinder, regardless of the user gender, was associated with body dissatisfaction, body shame, body monitoring, internalisation of societal expectations of beauty, comparing oneself physically to others and reliance on media for information on appearance and attractiveness”, explained Strübel.
It could be just as likely that people with lower self-esteem are drawn more to these types of apps.
The researchers have mentioned that people who use Tinder were having lower self-esteem, but that does not mean that at all that Tinder is the cause.
“Tinder users reported having lower levels of satisfaction with their faces and bodies and having lower levels of self-worth than the men and women who did not use Tinder”, said Jessica Strubel from University of North Texas in the US.
Experts have suggested that such platforms should not be considered as the best forum to get validation that you are attractive. “Perhaps we want to look a little more inside ourselves, and to our close friends, for that validation”.
The authors point out that while receiving compliments from other users can boost egos, validate worth, and feed narcissistic tendencies, the act of being scrutinized, evaluated, and objectified may serve to make individuals more body conscious and lead to feelings of anxiety, depression, and general psychological distress.
Tinder is a location-based dating and discovery app than help you communicate with a mutually interested user by chat. And while dating has always involved judgments based on looks, the “accessibility” of Tinder changes things, according to Strubel. And then you probably keep swiping to find more.
In addition, men alone who used Tinder appeared to have generally lower levels of self esteem.
For the study, a group of 1,317 people, consisting mostly of college students, completed a survey that asked about their use of Tinder as well as body image, psychological well-being and more.
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A new recent study showed that Tinder users have a lower level of self-esteem and also a lower standard of satisfaction when it comes to their appearance than people who do not use Tinder. The online questionnaire included a number of questions about self-esteem and how the participants felt about their bodies.
