In the era of Tinder & VR blind dates, ASU Lab studies the psychology behind our online connection

The Relationships and Technology Lab at ASU investigates the possibilities for new interpersonal technologies while also examining how technological breakthroughs are changing how people connect. Liesel Sharabi, an assistant professor at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication whose research focuses on online dating sites and mobile dating apps, established the lab in 2021. "I think that for a lot of people in my generation, our early childhood experiences were very much shaped by the divorce boom," Sharabi said. "I've always been really obsessed with what makes relationships work, and if there is any way that we can intervene to help people make better decisions about partners." Understanding why users of dating apps view the accounts they do is a necessary component of this. People were matched on early online dating sites based on the preferences they had entered into their profiles. The collaborative filtering algorithms that Netflix and Amazon use to suggest movies based on viewing history are being used by dating apps. Similar to this, dating apps will recommend profiles based on an individual's prior interactions and matches. "A lot of people don't really realize that apps like Tinder are using an algorithm. They think that it's just entirely based on location, and it is to a degree, but there’s more going on there," Sharabi said. Sharabi said that if a dating app user continuously sees the same person, it would require swiping on different sorts of people for the algorithm to change. "If you don't realize that is how the algorithm is serving up those recommendations, you might get frustrated and feel stuck with your options," she said. One of the first apps to use the swiping feature was Tinder, which had a deck of cards-inspired interface. You swipe left to continue playing the game, and you swipe right to match. "When you swipe and you match, that's how you win. That's the gamification of this; you forget that you are doing the hard work of dating, and it feels like you're just having fun," Sharabi said. The majority of communication on dating apps still takes place via text, but according to Sharabi, there are now better ways to connect and communicate online. One method to make the experience more natural and comfortable is by using virtual reality. "Right now, we're having a study where we're looking at whether virtual reality has an impact on dating experiences. So we're putting people in virtual reality, and they have to meet each other on a blind date," said Marco Dehnert, a communication graduate student and a doctoral student in the Relationships and Technology Lab. By utilizing Datingverse, a virtual reality date coaching tool, the Lab's research effort on dating in virtual reality is also a partnership with Counseling and Counseling Psychology at ASU. Despite the fact that dating apps may look like games, the partners that people are finding through them are serious. Only 12% of Americans who met through online dating are married or in a committed relationship, according to the Pew Research Center. Sharabi is studying the long-term effects of these relationships at the Relationships and Technology Lab. In the course of her investigation, Sharabi interviewed individuals who had either gotten married or were committed to someone they had met through a dating app. She discovered that since internet dating facilitates communication before first meeting in person, it creates a solid basis for marriage and long-term relationships.