Virtual Choice Architecture and Online Dating: The Effects of Choice Overload, Reversibility, and Impermanence on Online Daters' Satisfaction and Communication with Selected Partners

Online dating has provided a fundamental shift in the romantic initiation process by giving individuals greater access to, and abundance of, potential mates. This dissertation presents two studies that investigate how conditions of greater choice impact dater satisfaction and initial message construction. The first study draws on choice overload and decision reversibility theoretical frameworks. It shows that one week after making their selection, online daters who chose from a large set of potential partners (i.e., 24) were less satisfied with their choice than those who selected from a small set (i.e., 6), and were more likely to change their selection. While choice reversibility did not affect daters' satisfaction, those who selected from a large pool and had the ability to reverse their choice were the least satisfied with their selected partner after one week. The second study draws on choice overload and loss of option theoretical frameworks. In this study, one week following the initial selection, online daters who chose from a large set of potential partners were less satisfied with their choice than those who selected from a small set, and they also composed less effortful messages to their selected dater. Additionally, this study provides evidence that the choice overload effect occurs in online dating because individuals presented with more options viewed more dater profiles and experienced greater cognitive burden with their decision of who to select. Presenting online daters with a pool of options who could potentially disappear had no effect, but those who selected from a large pool and were told that their choice might disappear were less satisfied with their selection than those who selected from a small pool and were told that their choice might disappear. The results here advance our understanding of how technological features related to choice affect interpersonal evaluations and communicative actions.