[Air-L] Casual sex through dating apps an urban phenomena?

Mon May 30 07:19:03 PDT 2016

Hi Evelina,

You might be interested in a study my colleagues and I did regarding
OkCupid users in New York City (urban) and New Jersey (mostly in rural
areas). While we did not publish explicitly about the differences in
system-use by locale, I can say that the starkest difference we found
between urban and rural users pertained to the number of messages women
received on the system. Women in New York City received many more messages
than women in rural New Jersey (e.g. 60-100 messages per week was the
highest reported by a New York City women, while the highest by rural New
Jersey women was 20). We didn't find any evidence of relationship goals
varying much by location. (This paper gives the broadest account of this
study: http://oldwww.acm.org/conferences/group/conferences/group14/p53.pdf).

We did publish a paper using this study that was specifically about pursuit
of casual sex in online dating systems (you can read it here:
http://datingbydoug.com/research/chi_2015_zytko.pdf). From those findings,
I should caution you not to perceive casual sex and long-term relationships
as mutually exclusive goals. Many users in our study--both men and
women--held these goals simultaneously. They were looking for a long-term
partner, but open to a short-term fling if the opportunity presented
itself. While users often have an overarching relationship goal, they
adjust their goal for each individual user they discover in the system and
sometimes adopt temporary goals. For example, one female user discussed how
if she was "in the mood" for a one night stand, she would respond to men
she found most fitting for that desire. Her overarching goal for being on
the system, however, was to find a long-term partner.

The second half of that paper reported on interviews with "pickup artists,"
who are male users that adopt online dating systems specifically for casual
sex. Their system-use practices lend some credence to your hypothesis.
Since their goals entailed persuading any physically attractive female to
meet them in-person quickly, they leveraged copy-and-pasted message content
(i.e. pasting the same message to every woman), which enabled them to
message hundreds of women in a rather short period of time. I'd imagine
this strategy would not be possible in rural environments where the dating
pool of potential partners is much smaller. In fact, the pickup artists in
our study generally advocate to their clients that they move to a big city
to widen their pool of potential partners, thus giving them more
opportunities to practice their dating skills. If you're interested in
reading more about online dating strategies advocated by pickup artists and
dating coaches more generally, perhaps you would be interested in a recent
paper we just published that focuses on their user evaluation strategies:
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2892482&CFID=752832679&CFTOKEN=76266120

Hope this helps.

-Doug

On Mon, May 30, 2016 at 7:18 AM, Tati Tosi <tati at pluggedresearch.com> wrote:

> Hey Evelina,
>
> I'm researching not just casual sex but how new relationships have been
> developed within the apps.
>
> Take a look in:
>
> Dataclysm - Founder of OkCupid:
> https://www.amazon.com.br/Dataclysm-When-Think-Ones-Looking/dp/0385347375
>
> Modern Romance-
> http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Romance-Aziz-Ansari/dp/1594206279
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
>
> Tatiana Tosi
> (11) 99965-0082
> http://about.me/tatiana_tosi
>
> 2016-05-30 6:05 GMT-03:00 Ben Light <ben.light at qut.edu.au>:
>
> > Hey Evelina,
> >
> > There may be something in the hook-up apps bibliography I created, but
> I’m
> > not sure to be honest.  Also you should joint the FB group on hook-up app
> > studies, really good stuff get shared there too.  Links to both here:
> > http://benlight.me/hookupapps/
> >
> > Also, you might want to check out Mary Gray’s book - Out in the Country
> > too.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Ben.
> >
> >
> > Ben Light
> > Professor of Digital Media Studies / Chief Investigator - DMRC
> > http://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/lightb/
> > http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Light,_Ben.html
> > http://www.benlight.me
> > Ph: +617 3138 8280 | Email: ben.light at qut.edu.au | Twitter: @doggyb
> >
> > QUT Digital Media Research Centre
> > Creative Industries Faculty | Queensland University of Technology
> >
> > Z1-515 | Musk Ave | Kelvin Grove QLD 4059 | Ph: +617 3138 3889
> > Website: www.qut.edu.au/research/dmrc <
> http://www.qut.edu.au/research/dmrc>
> > | Twitter: @qutdmrc | Centre email: dmrc at qut.edu.au
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 5/30/16, 5:11 PM, "Evelina Liliequist" <evelina.liliequist at umu.se>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >Dear all!
> > >
> > >I’m looking for research that explores casual sex through dating apps an
> > urban phenomena and/or commitment and marriage as a norm in rural areas.
> > >
> > >Thank you in advance for all suggestions!
> > >
> > >Best regards,
> > >Evelina Liliequist
> > >
> > >Postgraduate student Ethnology, Digital humanities
> > >Department of Culture and Media Studies, Umeå University
> > >
> > >Umeå University
> > >SE-901 87 Umeå
> > >Sweden
> > >
> > >Tel: +46 90 7866305
> > >Email: evelina.liliequist at umu.se<mailto:evelina.liliequist at umu.se>
> > >
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