Though dating apps hold the promising reward of love, they have been accused of using manipulative tactics to mentally and financially exploit those who try to find it. A 2026 meta-analysis indicated that dating app users had worse psychological health and well-being than non-users in facets including anxiety, loneliness, and depression.
A meta-analysis could be defined as an “analysis of analyses.” It involves combining published data from many studies of the same topic to create large databases that can be more effectively analyzed. In this instance, the team led by Dr. Liesel L. Sharabi of Arizona State University amassed data from 23 studies on dating apps and mental health outcomes that contained input from 26,000 volunteers published over the course of 17 years.
Their motivation stemmed from a class-action lawsuit filed on Valentine’s Day 2024 against Match Group, the parent company of apps such as Tinder and Hinge. It accused these apps of being addictive and profiting from compulsive use. Behind this, Sharabi’s team sought to explore the associations between dating app use and psychological health.
The increased media and cultural attention towards this topic is not without reason: Tinder reported a record 3 billion swipes within a single day on March 29, 2020, and 75 million users worldwide as of 2022. Furthermore, it seems that these apps aren’t losing any ground, despite their growth being heavily induced by the coronavirus pandemic. The worldwide dating app user base is expected to grow to 440 million people by 2027. An estimated 20% of all Americans are participating in online dating, a number that seems small until you consider how many adults have partners. According to the Pew Research Center, only 30% of Americans are single.
Results from the meta-analysis backed the qualms of the lawsuit, concluding that dating app users showed far worse mental health outcomes than non-users. These mental health outcomes include, but are not limited to, depression, loneliness, anxiety, and psychological distress. Due to the included studies being highly heterogeneous—meaning that results varied due to differences in population or other factors that may be unique to a particular study—Sharabi’s team conducted further analysis to find what factors may have influenced the heterogeneity.
When comparing users of dating apps versus dating websites, only those of dating apps showed significantly worse mental health than non-users. Looking at users who were single versus in a relationship, only single users showed markedly worse mental health than non-users. This comparison is surprisingly relevant, as estimates suggest as many as 10-29% of people on dating apps are partnered. The scientists also compared heterosexual and homosexual volunteers, finding that there were no notable differences between the groups. Cultural context was used in the capacity that volunteers were separated into participants from WEIRD countries (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) and those from non-WEIRD countries. Users from WEIRD countries showed worse mental health when compared to non-users, while those from other countries did not.
These results undoubtedly associate worse psychological well-being and self-perception with the usage of dating apps. There remains the question of how much of this is average-case users compared to compulsive dating app users or those who already had poor mental health. The team is looking for more factors in new and existing datasets to better categorize these issues.
In the meantime, psychologists recommend users moderate their time on these apps, encouraging boundaries and time limits. And if you ever decide you’ve had enough of dating apps, just remind yourself that romance came before the iPhone.
