Our online survey created using google forms consisted of 48 female participants and 2 male participants. The intention of the survey was to gather the quantitative data behind the experiences of both men and women on dating apps. We also included two questions which allowed participants to give examples of qualitative data, such as reciting messages they had received from matches on dating apps. It was hypothesised that a majority of women, and some men - would have had negative experiences with dating apps, including receiving hurtful messages. While this hypothesis was proven correct for the most part, there were not enough men who participated to give us a more accurate overview.
Although it was shared across a number of social media platforms, including facebook, instagram, and reddit (via dating app-related subreddits) , a majority of participants ended up being female. The survey was open to all genders so there was no control over which gender was represented more. It is important to note that the 2 male participants responded “no” or “N/A” to a majority of the latter questions (except for the final one), so any statistics used in the story are an accurate representation of the data when referring to “women surveyed”.
None of the participants were specifically asked to complete the survey, and no incentives were given to entice subjects to participate. All participants were entirely voluntary, so the data was not intentionally skewed in any way to suggest a certain outcome.
While we had a goal of 100 participants, we were not successful in getting the reach available to achieve this (as many social media pages took down our survey or flagged it), so ensured we could reach the more achievable goal of 50 participants. This and a lack of balance in participant gender are both limiting factors for our data.
The survey data indicated that a majority of the women surveyed not only had negative experiences on dating apps, but 64 per cent had received more than one hurtful or hateful message from a match. 78 per cent of participants, including the 2 men - believe that dating apps do not do enough to protect their users from hurtful content and dangerous situations/people.
While we wanted to include this data in our story, word limit meant we could not expand enough on the important topic of what dating apps do to protect their users - to do it justice - and so we decided to leave it out.
Below is each question, the data represented in graphs.
The link to the original survey - https://forms.gle/UagZmsLCV58VCnPF7
