Cupidoo – Experimental Online Dating Paradigm

Cupidoo is an experimental online dating paradigm designed to investigate the psychological consequences of romantic rejection and social feedback in digital environments. The platform reproduces the core features of an online dating service while allowing researchers to maintain experimental control over participants’ interactions and the feedback they receive from potential partners.

During the experience, participants create a personal dating profile and are led to believe that the platform uses their profile information and interests to identify compatible romantic partners. They are then presented with a set of potential partners and asked to select those they find most appealing. The system can subsequently manipulate the outcome of these interactions, for example by providing romantic rejection from the selected partners or an appropriate control condition. This makes Cupidoo particularly suitable for experimentally studying social exclusion, emotional responses to rejection, interpersonal aggression, attitudes toward potential partners, and other psychosocial processes associated with online dating.

The paradigm was originally developed and used in the study “Lonely Hearts and Angry Minds: Online Dating Rejection Increases Male (but Not Female) Hostility”, where it was employed to experimentally investigate how rejection from desired online dating partners influences emotional and hostile responses. In that study, participants selected three potential partners; in the rejection condition, all three declined the participant’s matching request, whereas the control condition prevented partner feedback through an ostensible technical failure.

Reference
Andrighetto, L., Riva, P., & Gabbiadini, A. (2019). Lonely hearts and angry minds: Online dating rejection increases male (but not female) hostility. Aggressive Behavior, 45(5), 571–581. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21852