About Gambling, Dating apps and Pigeons

It may sound strange to put birds that crowd our cities' squares, dating apps, and addictions in the same sentence. However, if you follow us, you'll see why this is also a matter of manipulation.

Valentine's Day has just passed, this is the month of romance. Now imagine two distant lovers writing their longing on a small scroll, neatly rolling it and securely attaching it to a pigeon's foot. They release the trained bird from a tower, knowing that it will bravely fly to deliver the message. Writing an instant message on a dating app may not be as poetic, but it still has a lot to do with pigeons.

On Valentine's Day, a lawsuit was filed alleging that Match Group's apps Tinder, Hinge, and the League are designed to hook users by promising seemingly endless romantic matches, pushing people to pay money to continue their compulsive behavior. The suit argues that Match gamifies the services "to transform users into gamblers locked in a search for psychological rewards that Match makes elusive on purpose." The suit seeks class action status for violating state and federal consumer protection, false advertising, and defective design laws. (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24427323-match-group-complaint)

Most of these apps are effectively designed to keep users hooked by rewarding their attention and compulsive behavior at a certain pace and rhythm, similar to how a gambling platform operates. Comparing gambling and dating apps may seem far-fetched, but the truth is that the manipulation techniques used in both industries are extremely comparable, if not identical.

Let's delve deeper. When discussing gambling addiction, one particular behavior pattern is called "Chasing loser," which occurs when the downward spiral is fueled by the idea of winning back losses. In dating apps, it's essentially the same. After each rejection, users go back to swipe more and bet on more dates and appointments. Just like a casino bombards you with signs promising wins and flashy slot machines, a dating app captures your attention and motivation by sending notifications at the right time to your phone. But the parallels don't end there, unfortunately. The pull-to-refresh and infinite scrolling design elements are borrowed from slot machines, which are highly efficient in creating addiction. A lot of the dating apps are based on the same concepts: infinite scrolling or infinite swiping, unless, of course, they force you to pay to continue.

So now, what about the pigeons?

In 2018, Jonathan Badeen, co-founder and former CSO of Tinder, revealed in an interview with journalist Nancy Jo Sales that the idea of the swiping action originated from his college studies on B.F. Skinner's experiments with pigeons. If you're not familiar with Skinner's work, he is known for Project ORCAN, where he attempted to train pigeons as missile target drivers. However, he extensively worked with pigeons, observing and experimenting with their ability to be trained and programmed. Among other exercises, he tested a group of pigeons by training them to believe that food was delivered when they were pecking, even though it was actually delivered randomly. By doing this, hungry pigeons would peck harder to get food. It's similar to how people bet harder when they're losing or swipe faster when they want a date.

But dating Apps can be a great tool, helping people connect and find a soulmates (without using pigeons and scrolls), and they are not doomed to be manipulative or deceptive: we’re seeing already interesting initiatives such as the Deception Detector™ from Bumble, an AI powered safety net to catch spam, scam and fake profiles. There is great room for improvement and we’re ready to make the online dating a great, safe, and fair experience for everyone.

Looking ahead to 2024, the lawsuit will continue, and we will be sure to track it and provide you with all the updates. In the meantime, we will continue to work closely with regulators and the market to advocate for a fairer experience that empowers users.

Oh, and one last thing, we really like pigeons. Did you know that they mate for life?

Did you miss anything?

• DSA went into full action on the 17th February, meaning is now applying to all digital players, and not just VLOPs. Read all about it here
• And just 2 days after the Digital Services Act #DSA came into full effect the #EU [...]has opened formal proceedings to assess whether #tiktok may have breached the DSA in areas linked to the #protection of #minors, #advertising #transparency, #data access for researchers, as well as the risk management of #addictive #design and harmful content[...]. Full statement can be found here
• We finally got our hands on the #AIAct from the #EU. This new act will be instrumental in protecting users' right in the upcoming future; read how it's protecting from #manipulation and Dark patterns on this post.
• We are extremely proud and honoured to collaborate with Croix-Rouge française, and you can read all about it on amurabi post
• We had #Data #Protection Day and we wanted to celebrate talking about that one third of internet users who are #underage and most vulnerable to manipulation. Learn more here
• This month we were thrilled to have Cindy Cohn from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) as guest on our Podcast. If you haven't heard it yet, you can't miss it!
• And speaking of podcast, our founder and CEO Marie Potel-Saville was guest on The Law of Tech Podcast, giving a little sneak peek on what's coming from Fairpatterns.

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