Some of them may appear to be tall, dark and handsome. However it seems that the men using the dating app Tinder suffer from low self-esteem.
A survey of more than 1,300 men and women found that those who use the highly popular smartphone programme tend to be less happy with their looks.
Male Tinder users in particular were lacking in self-confidence, said researcher Dr Jessica Strubel.
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‘We found that being actively involved with Tinder, regardless of the user’s gender, was associated with body dissatisfaction, body shame, body monitoring, internalisation of societal expectations of beauty, and comparing oneself physically with others,’ she said.
Tinder has been downloaded more than 50million times since it was launched in 2012.
Users view photographs of potential dates, swiping the picture to the right if they like the person and swiping to the left to reject them and move on to the next suitor.
If both users swipe to the right then it is deemed to be a match and they can begin sending messages to each other.
Decisions are rapid and mainly based on looks.
The researchers said that Tinder users may start to see social interactions as disposable and begin to question their own worth.
Around 10 per cent of those questioned in the survey admitted they used Tinder.
Dr Strubel, of the University of North Texas, had intended to focus on the female users’ answers and was surprised to discover it was the men whose responses stuck out.
The academic said: ‘Although current body image interventions primarily have been directed towards women, our findings suggest that men are equally and negatively affected by their involvement in social media.’
Speaking at the American Psychological Association’s annual conference, she added that she had not proved that Tinder was damaging self-esteem – it was also possible that people with lower self-confidence were drawn to it and similar apps.
Dr Strubel said that men may feel more vulnerable because there are more of them on the app than women, meaning they face more competition.
She said: ‘Men try to increase their odds of matching with someone by swiping right with higher frequency.
‘The increased odds of being rejected by potential connections may put men into a more vulnerable position, which could affect their self-concept.’
Tinder said the research contained ‘major methodological flaws’ – including the study of people not representative of the app’s ‘global user base’.
Daily Mail