What Dating Apps Reveal About How We Choose Brands

New research shows surprising links between dating app behaviors and consumer decision-making, offering marketers fresh insights.

LONDON, GREATER LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, April 1, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- From first swipes to final purchases, the way people navigate dating apps reveals much more than just their romantic preferences — it uncovers how they choose brands. In his latest article, Love in the Age of Algorithms: What Dating Apps Reveal About How We Choose Brands, Luca Bertocci, co-founder of Human Centric Group and university lecturer (MSc, MBA, EMBA), unveils how dating behaviors mirror consumers’ confidence, loyalty, and shopping styles.

Prompted by a simple YouTube video illustrating how couples have met over the past century, Bertocci and the Human Centric team launched an experimental study asking: If algorithms shape how we date, do they also shape how we shop?

Swiping Habits Predict Shopping Behavior
The study surveyed 199 dating app users across Europe. Results showed strong parallels between dating styles and brand choices:
• High-confidence daters were 33% more likely to experiment with new brands, while those with lower confidence leaned into brand loyalty by 27%.
• Analytical decision-makers (those who “weigh all options” on dating apps) were 82% more likely to be brand loyalists.
• Fast decision-makers, contrary to popular belief, did not show a higher appetite for bold shopping, often opting for safe, familiar brands.
Bertocci even turned the research into a real-world experiment by creating a personal dating app profile—not for romance, but for data collection. His candid bio, stating he was "here purely for research reasons," helped boost survey responses significantly (and caused some confusion among app moderators).

The Link Between Dating Personalities and Consumer Types
The research also uncovered how dating archetypes—The Romantic, The Strategist, The Spontaneous, The Trendsetter, and The Chiller—map to distinct consumer behaviors. For example:
• Strategists showed the highest levels of brand loyalty and were influenced heavily by quality and reviews.
• Spontaneous users indexed higher for experimentation and trend-driven purchases.
• Chillers, who take a relaxed approach to dating, also displayed average, steady consumer behaviors.

Discovery Channels Depend on Decision Style
Those who overanalyze dating profiles also tend to overanalyze purchases, relying heavily on Instagram, TikTok ads, influencers, and online reviews. Fast swipers were more likely to discover brands intuitively or through casual in-store browsing.

What This Means for Marketers
“Marketers often focus on demographics or behaviors, but what truly drives choice is why people act the way they do — their underlying motivations. And often, the reasons behind how they behave in one area of life quietly shape how they behave in another,” says Bertocci. The findings suggest brands should shift from traditional targeting based on age or gender to psychographic segments such as confident impulsives, rational loyalists, and situational explorers.

About Human Centric Group
Human Centric Group is a boutique advisory and branding firm specializing in helping boards, owners, and family businesses across EMEA transform brands into strategic business assets. With a proven track record of driving double- and triple-digit growth, the firm partners directly with leadership teams to navigate complex challenges such as international expansion, repositioning, and value creation. Human Centric Group is trusted by some of the world's most respected brands and privately held groups for its ability to turn brand equity into measurable business impact (among clients: Danone, Carlsberg, Sodastream, Mitsubishi Electric, Carrefour, Tecnam, etc.).


About the author
Luca Bertocci is a co-founder and co-owner of Human Centric Group, where he partners with boards, founders, and C-level executives to transform brands into strategic business assets. He leads the agency’s analytical department, applying a data-driven approach to unlock sustainable, long-term value for global clients such as Carlsberg, PepsiCo, Danone, Mitsubishi Electric, and Carrefour, across more than 30 countries.
Before Human Centric Group, Luca was an equity partner at Garrison Group and held key roles at Pirelli Tyres and Desk Promos (special agency of the Italian Chamber of Commerce) during Expo Shanghai 2010.
Beyond consulting, Luca is a lecturer at Krakow School of Business (International MBA), and AGH Business School (EMBA and Tech MBA). He also serves as a mentor for Bocconi University and for several startups in Poland, combining entrepreneurial spirit with academic rigor.

Media Enquiries
HUMAN CENTRIC GROUP LTD
+ +442036934480
email us here
Visit us on social media:
X
LinkedIn
Instagram
TikTok

"How couples met" by @Eeagli (YouTube)