Most Britons see verticality-based dating preferences as acceptable, but men and women split when it comes to weight
Dating app Tinder caused a stir last week by announcing that it would let users filter their potential matches by height. This is seen as disadvantaging short and indeed not-short men, with a product manager at competing dating app Bumble reporting that most women set their lower limit at 6 feet for men, a level which would exclude 85% of potential matches.
Nevertheless, a new YouGov survey shows that most men say dating apps should allow users to filter by height. Indeed, at 56%, the number of men saying this is almost identical to the number of women saying so (55%).
And, in fact, the number of men saying apps should NOT let people filter by height (23%) is actually slightly lower than the number of women (29%) saying so.
Among those Britons who have ever actually used a dating app, support for height-based filtering is higher still, at 62% among male users and 67% among female users.
While there is a tendency among all age groups to say that height is an acceptable attribute by which to filter potential matches, it is the youngest generation who are the most likely to disagree. More than one in three of the under-30s (36%) say verticality-based filtering is unacceptable, compared to 26% among the wider public. This is true among both young men and women.
Men think dating apps should let you filter by weight; women disagree
Where there is conflict between the genders is over the issue of weight, rather than height.
While 51% of men support allowing dating app users to filter by how heavy their potential partner is, this figure falls to just 36% among women. This trend is similar among those who have ever used dating apps.
Young women are the most likely to be opposed to letting users filter by weight, at 68% among 18-29 year old women, and 51% of those in their 30s. Men in those age groups are also the most likely to be against, at 37-38%. Nevertheless, young men still do tend to think it is a legitimate metric by users should be allowed to filter partners (50-51%).
When it comes to other attributes, the public tend to say that apps should allow users to filter by education level (48%), but not by income, which only 29% see as appropriate.
One in three Britons say they have ever used dating apps
Our study finds that one in three Britons (32%) say they have ever used dating apps, including 5% who say they are currently doing so. Experience with the apps is highest among Britons in their thirties (55%) and the under-30s (49%).
What do you think about refusing to date people based on their height, the state of modern romance, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photo: Getty
