Dating apps motivate eating disorders amongst users: study

According to a recent study, dating apps have been found to motivate dangerous crash dieting practices, especially amongst men.

An investigation conducted by Harvard University found a strong positive correlation between those using apps such as Tinder and those with tendencies to implement unhealthy dieting techniques into their routines, such as excessive fasting, vomiting and use of laxative pills.

Analysis of 392 dating app users demonstrated that 44.8 per cent of women and 54.1 per cent of men reported fasting, and 22.4 per cent of women and 36.4 per cent of men reported vomiting.



The odds of these unhealthy dietary restrictions and behaviours were seen to be associated with gender, but not with sexual orientation. Dr Alvin Tran, who led the research, stated “While we do not know if the people in our study were already engaging in these weight control behaviours before using dating apps, we worry that the use of these image and appearance-focused services could exacerbate those behaviours.”

The study analysed users who report using laxatives for weight control, consisting of 24 per cent of women and 41 per cent of men. Tran added, “To our knowledge, our study is one of the first to explore dating app use in association with unhealthy weight control behaviours.”

Other widely utilised methods of weight control included the use of diet pills, anabolic steroids or muscle building supplements. The authors further elaborated that these behaviours go against medically recommended safe methods for weight loss and are considered to be symptoms of eating disorders.



Last year the founder of the widely popular dating app Bumble, Whitney Wolfe, admitted that such services can be harmful to mental health due to their contributions to “smartphone addictions.” Woolfe has since added a “snooze” function to Bumble which allows its users to freeze the app for certain periods of time.

This article originally appeared on The Telegraph.