Sources & research: 50/50

We built 50/50 on what the research says is broken about swipe apps, so we hold our own marketing to the same standard: every statistic on the homepage links here, to the study it comes from, what that study actually found, and its limits. Peer-reviewed papers, industry surveys, and platform data analyses are not the same thing, so each source is labeled.

1. Match rates: 0.6% for men, 10.5% for women peer-reviewed

Tyson, Perta, Haddadi & Seto, “A First Look at User Activity on Tinder,” Proc. IEEE/ACM ASONAM 2016. arXiv:1607.01952 · DOI 10.1109/ASONAM.2016.7752275

Researchers ran curated test profiles on Tinder in London and New York. Male profiles matched with 0.6% of the people they liked; female profiles matched at 10.5%, roughly 17× higher.

Limits: Tinder only, data from 2016, and the test profiles liked everyone in range rather than swiping selectively, which likely pushes the male rate below a real user's. The asymmetry itself, not the exact decimals, is the finding, and it has been replicated in direction many times since.

2. 78% of dating-app users report burnout survey

Forbes Health / OnePoll, survey of 1,000 U.S. adults who used a dating app in the past year, fielded March–April 2024. Forbes Health: Dating App Fatigue

78% of respondents said they feel emotionally, mentally, or physically exhausted by dating apps “sometimes, often or always.” Among Gen Z and millennial respondents the figure was slightly higher, at 79–80%. The most-cited cause: not finding a real connection (40%).

Limits: a commissioned opinion poll of app users, not peer-reviewed research.

3. 84% of Gen Z & millennials have been ghosted survey

Thriving Center of Psychology, survey of 1,014 Gen Z and millennial U.S. adults, August 2023. Gen Z & Millennial ghosting statistics

84% of respondents (ages 18–42) said they have been ghosted. The survey covers ghosting across dating, friendships, and work, not dating apps alone; within it, 65% reported being ghosted specifically by a romantic partner or date.

Limits: a consumer survey published by a therapy practice, not peer-reviewed research.

4. Half of women's likes go to the top 15% of men platform data

Aviv Goldgeier (Hinge), likes-distribution analysis of Hinge's straight users, 2017; reported by Quartz. Quartz write-up · Psychology Today citation

On Hinge, half of all likes sent to men went to just 15% of men (for women, half of incoming likes went to 25% of women). Measured as a Gini coefficient, the distribution of likes across men (0.542) was more unequal than the income distribution of about 95% of the world's economies.

Limits: internal platform data from one app in 2017, analyzed by a Hinge engineer rather than independent researchers. The original Hinge post is no longer online; the figures survive in contemporaneous reporting, linked above.

5. Couples who meet online divorce less peer-reviewed

Cacioppo, Cacioppo, Gonzaga, Ogburn & VanderWeele, “Marital satisfaction and break-ups differ across on-line and off-line meeting venues,” PNAS 110(25), 2013. DOI 10.1073/pnas.1222447110

In a survey of 19,131 Americans who married between 2005 and 2012, marriages that began online were less likely to have ended in separation or divorce (about 6.0% vs 7.6% for couples who met offline), and the still-married reported slightly higher marital satisfaction. The differences held after controlling for demographics.

Limits: the authors themselves call the differences “slight,” and the study was funded in part by eHarmony (disclosed in the paper, with independent oversight of the analysis). Our read: online meeting doesn't guarantee anything; it widens the pool, and what the app does with that pool is what matters. That part is on us.

Questions about any of these, or research we should be reading? [email protected]