Having a dog on your dating app profile might not help you find true love, but it may help you meet more potential suitors, that's for sure. Because according to a new survey, people apparently swipe right for one key reason pretty frequently, and it's not a cute beard or even a sweet car. It's the presence of an adorable pooch.
It sounds strange, but apparently it's true. In a new survey, 2,000 Americans who've used a dating app, half of whom are pet owners, over a third said they had swiped right just to meet someone's dog. In other words, they wanted to meet the pup featured in the profile "more than the person."
If you're wondering why there are so many dog pictures on dating profiles, well, it seems there's some pretty good logic to including your pup.
The survey's goal was to examine the relationship between pets and modern dating trends. It was conducted by OnePoll and commissioned by pet food brand “I and love and you.”
While the survey could've been a total flop, it appears that there is a huge relationship between pets and modern dating, especially when it comes to dating apps. Apps like Hinge, Bumble, and Tinder are some of the most popular ones. But there are tons more dating apps and websites to be found.
Of the 2,000 people surveyed, 63% said that they believed having a cute dog in their profile betters their chances of success when it comes to online dating. As it turns out, those animal instincts are correct. People are definitely more likely to swipe right, even if it's not because they like you.
But some folks go even farther than including their own pup in their photos to sniff out a match. An astonishing 39% of participants revealed that they borrowed a friend’s dog. They apparently felt that it would make their profile more swipe-able and help them get more likes — even if it was a lie.
There's a clear downside to doing such a thing, of course. Because if someone swipes on you just to meet your dog, and it turns out you don't actually have a dog, there's going to be some disappointment — likely from both sides. The survey said that of the 39% who specifically matched with someone because of a dog in the profile, 53% were “very upset” when they found out that the dog didn’t belong to their match.
The survey didn't look at only how people match on apps based on pets. It also looked at how relationships can be impacted if a pet is involved. Those impacts are pretty immense, too, with 31% of participants admitting that they stayed in the relationship longer than they should have because they didn’t want to leave a pet behind.
That's not all that hard to believe because people can get very attached to their pets. Some even consider them their "babies."
“We believe pets are people too, so not only can a breakup be heartbreaking with your human partner, it can sometimes be even harder knowing you won’t see your furry companion every day,” Lindsey Rabaut, VP of marketing at “I and love and you,” said in a statement. “We want the best for them, even more so after a breakup.”
We aren't exactly sure what the moral of the story is here. Perhaps it's just to be who you are on your dating profile. I mean, really, what is the point of lying just to have to admit the truth when you meet someone face to face anyway? The doggy disappointment will quickly turn into the real-life realization that the person who said "yes" to you did so under false pretenses. And it's not a great idea to start a relationship based on lies (or manipulation), anyway.
Or perhaps there's another way to look at the findings. If dogs are that good for upping your chances, then instead of pretending to have a dog, how about just getting a dog? That seems like a better alternative. Especially because having pets has real health benefits. And if the dates don't work out, well, at least you have a furry friend to come home to.
