Tinder experiments
The Tinder experiments involved experimenters catfishing, or rather chadfishing, women on Tinder using profile pictures of attractive male models. The attractive men were sometimes able to get phone numbers and arrange dates even after saying they were convicted child molesters or had similarly devious tendencies.
The experiments showed that some women overlook extraordinarily repulsive personality traits, at least temporarily, if they receive interest from a sufficiently attractive potential mate. The experiments provided support for numerous anecdotes where women had sex with men they knew to be repeat child pornography users or sex offenders.[1]
Implications[edit | edit source]
One implication of the Tinder experiments is that attractive men need not necessarily worry about turning women off by saying "the wrong thing" since the experiments proved that even telling women "I like to have sex with little kids" is not necessarily a dealbreaker. Women can find all kinds of ways to rationalize having sex with such men, e.g. by saying "Maybe I'm infertile anyway, so it doesn't matter if I let him have sex with me raw while I'm ovulating" even when they have no particular reason to believe they're infertile. Or they may think, "He still expresses a desire to have sex with kids, but maybe I can get him to change after we're married and I'm pregnant with his kid, since then I'll be able to use the threat of leaving him as leverage."
The amount of mental gymnastics women are capable of when they are looking for an excuse to have sex with an attractive man that societal norms would say they should reject may seem startling at first, yet society tends to cater to such women's desire to form relationships with such men and remain loyal to them, by for example excusing it in the name of love, or saying that women, especially young women, can't help themselves when overcome by their passions for a charming man. Such sentiments are idealized as romantic.
Indeed, the badboy is an archetype that women are fond of, as shown by their interest in romance novels where the woman is swept away by her desire for a rulebreaking Chad, whom she must then try to tame. The badboy does not follow societal conventions that would say that their love is wrong, nor are those conventions enough to stop them from being together, because it is "destiny," another trope that women are fond of in their thinking about love.
Part of the badboy's appeal is that he does not allow any concepts of what it means to be a good boy (aka nice guy) get in the way of overcoming her resistance and taking her violently in whatever manner he chooses; in a similar manner, in a caveman environment or in the modern world, he will ruthlessly do what's needed to look out for his own interests and perhaps those of his female and minor property as well. Although conscientious behavior helps a society function smoothly, in a society where the moral standards are loose, or where loopholes can be found in their enforcement, women will feel tempted to cheat the system by having sex with badboys.
Criticism[edit | edit source]
One criticism of the Tinder experiments is that perhaps cherry picking was done to present outlier behavior among women as mainstream. Another criticism is that a girl's giving out her phone number is not tantamount to actually having sex with him; it could've been a fake number or she could've still backed out. Actually driving an hour or two to meet a sex offender Chad, à la a Catfishman experiment, would've been stronger proof of her commitment to having sex.
The experiment can, however, be easily replicated by anyone who wants to try it, either by using male model photos or, if the experimenter is good looking, his own photos.