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An analysis of heterosexual users of a Czech dating app found that men tended to pursue women who were more desirable than themselves, but most instances of reciprocated interest occurred between men and women with more similar levels of desirability.

Renata Topinkova of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany, and Tomas Diviak of the University of Manchester, U.K., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One.

A growing number of couples meet through online dating apps. Prior research has suggested that married couples often share similar characteristics鈥攕uch as age, ethnicity, or political ideology鈥攁nd some similarities have also been observed among dating couples and in online dating. However, it is unclear whether these patterns are universally true, including in countries beyond the U.S. and Western Europe.

To help address this gap, Topinkova and Diviak analyzed data from a Central European dating app, specifically looking at two cities in Czechia.

They applied social network analysis methods in which network nodes represented app users, and ties between nodes represented "swipes" sent between users to express interest. They extended standard methods to account for the direction of ties, which shows who pursues whom and when there is mutual interest.

Analysis of data from July 2017 on 2,321 heterosexual users in Prague and 624 in Brno showed that some users received far more swipes than others, resulting in a hierarchy of desirability. Women generally ranked more highly in this hierarchy, in large part because the app had many more male users than female users.

Men tended to express interest in women who were more desirable than themselves, while women typically pursued men of more similar desirability. However, mutual swipes鈥攕howing reciprocal interest鈥攎ostly occurred between men and women of more similar desirability.

These findings suggest that similarity of desirability between couples may arise through the process of rejection by others, who are more desirable counterparts, rather than from initial preferences for similarity.

Future research could address some limitations of this study, such as by including queer users and other dating apps.

The authors add, "Our research on a Czech online dating app shows that while men often aim high when choosing whom to contact, successful matches tend to happen between people with similar levels of desirability. This pattern is largely the result of rejection, rather than an initial preference for similarity."

"The successful matching outcomes tend to align more closely with women's preferences than with men's. This likely reflects women's stronger position in the online dating market, as men outnumber women and are often expected to make the first move."