Partner search in the digital age. Psychological characteristics of Online-Dating-Service-Users and its contribution to the explanation of different patterns of utilization

In search of a romantic partnership nearly half of all German singles are using internet-dating-services (Schultz & Zillmann, 2009). Although there is much reported about this phenomenon in the media, scientific studies on this subject are rare. The present investigation pursues three objectives: (1) the psychological traits (self-esteem, extraversion, openness, shyness, physical attraction, sociability) as well as sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, education)in comparison to people who have not used online single services before; (2) to determine psychological characteristics which predict the intensity of using Internet dating platforms; (3) to identify different user types according to motives of utilization, differential characteristics and their behaviour of utilization. In a random sample of N = 437 Internet dating service users hardly differ from non-users in psychological, but merely in socio-demographic variables. The results make clear that the intensity of using Internet dating platforms can be predicted on the basis of factors such as sociability, self-esteem and subjective importance of a partnership. Interaction effects show that among the people who are sociable and exhibit a low self-esteem Internet dating is pursued more intensely if romantic relations take a high value. In the first instance results of a cluster analysis yield that the user's population is heterogeneous. Three different users types could be determined – shy, compensatory contact seekers, self confident partner seekers and pastime flirters – which differ in their basic motivation, their behaviour of utilization, their personality and concerning socio-demographic characteristics. The results are discussed in the light of previous findings and their utility is represented for the practice. 1 Internet Dating in Germany Searching for a partner through the Internet has become fashionable. While various industries and companies registered significant loss of business in recent years, the online dating industry experienced a boom in 2009 and 2010. More than 2000 dating services and dating agencies are available to partner seeking Germans on the Internet and membership in 2008 estimated at 54.4 million users (Pflitsch & Wiechers, 2009). The proliferation of singleportals is not surprising. Since it is a convenient and inexpensive way to look for a potential partner at home a membership can be achieved by a few mouse clicks. Moreover, the speed of getting to know somebody is controllable and the anonymity can be maintained, which can reduce inhibitions and increase s