Online Dating Meets Artificial Intelligence: How the Perception of Algorithmically Generated Profile Text Impacts Attractiveness and Trust

Abstract

Online dating systems are widely used to meet romantic partners, yet people often struggle to write attractive profiles on these applications. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to help online daters by automatically generating profile content, but little research has explored how the use of AI in online dating could affect users’ perceptions of one another. The present study investigated how the perceived involvement of AI influences ratings of attractiveness and trust in online dating. In a between-subjects experiment, participants (N = 48) were presented with the text of 10 dating profiles and were told that the profiles had been written by humans or with the help of AI. We found that the perceived involvement of AI did not have a significant impact on attractiveness, but that it did lead to a significant reduction in trustworthiness of the profile author. We interpret our findings through the lens of social information processing theory, discussing the tradeoffs associated with designing to reveal or hide the use of AI in online dating.