Religiosity Impacts Online Dating Use

Running head: RELIGIOUSITY AND ONLINE DATING 1
Religiosity and Online Dating
Allison Manzo
New Jersey Institute of Technology

RELIGIOUSITY AND ONLINE DATING 2
Abstract
This research seeks to comprehend whether religiosity affects online dating usage. The purpose
of this study is to see if there is or isn’t a relationship between religiosity and online dating
websites, specifically OkCupid. This research was conducted through a survey from
SurveyGizmo and was primarily distributed on Reddit. The findings from this survey reveal that
there is a relationship between religiosity and online dating usage. Additionally, there were
interesting outcomes between religiosity and the significance of a partner’s religion or beliefs. In
conclusion, the results indicate that religiosity does play a role in the use of online dating.

Increased Popularity of Online Dating Websites and Applications
Technological communication, overall, is progressing as new forms of technology
develop. As a result, online dating websites and applications are also advancing. Online dating
websites are becoming increasingly popular and there are a multitude of different ways to find a
romantic partner. Additionally, religion and faith seem to generally be declining in importance.
Considering this, there are general dating websites and specific dating websites which consider
an individual’s religion. There already is an understanding that individuals who sought religious
partners would use religious dating applications, however, what was the religiosity of a general
dating application like OkCupid? Was religiosity an important factor within the usage of
OkCupid? Therefore, this study seeks to understand if there is a relationship between religiosity
and a general online dating website, OkCupid. Additionally, this research investigates the
individuals’ importance of religion who use online dating applications.
Research Concerning Online Dating and Religion
The usage of online dating websites is becoming increasingly more common and popular.
“A total of 15% of American adults now report that they have used online dating sites and/or
mobile dating apps” (Smith, 2016). These applications offer individuals a safe place and
efficient way to find a romantic partner. It can be extremely difficult to meet someone who share
your interests, satisfies what you want in a partner, and is attractive in your perspective.
However, online dating simplifies all of this in a fast and effective way. “The Internet
increasingly allows Americans to meet and form relationships with perfect strangers, that is,
people with whom they had no previous social tie” (Rosenfeld, 2012). With online dating, you
can meet multiple people at once that share your interests, satisfy what you seek in a partner, and
are attractive. “Before online dating, this would have been a fruitless quest, but now, at any time

of the day, no matter where you are, you are just a few screens away from sending a message to
your very specific dream man” (Ansari and Alter, 2015). This is especially accurate since there
are online dating sites for specific preferences, such as, particular religions.
It is already known that religious online dating websites are specifically used by
individuals who find religion to be important in their life and fundamental for their partner to
share their religion. “Niche sites like JDate and ChristianMingle will no doubt find that religion
is a core value among their users” (Rudder, 2015). However, there is a significant decline of
religious importance in society. “We live in a society today where it is acceptable now to say that
they have no spiritual curiosity. At almost any other time in history, that would have been
unacceptable” (Lynn, 2012). Considering that the study is based on religion and general dating
websites, this shows how the results might be.
Since religious importance has dropped, Atheism has increased. “28% told LifeWay, ‘It's
not a major priority in my life to find my deeper purpose.’ And 18% scoffed at the idea that God
has a purpose or plan for everyone” (Lynn, 2012). This is also representative of the amount of
people who have no concern for religion. These individuals definitely wouldn’t use a religious
online dating site, thus, they would use a general dating application. Consequently, there will
probably be a majority of participants who use general online dating websites that are Atheist or
find religion to be unimportant. “However central religious belief may be to our 15 million users'
personal lives, in online dating it is marginal. Religious-match questions on OkCupid are often
assigned the highest importance. But when you look at the data, religion is one of singledom's
self-imposed divides.” This indicates that religion isn’t significant when it comes to online
dating. Therefore, it can be assumed from this research that the importance of religiosity will
decrease while online dating usage increases.

Hypotheses and Research Questions
• H1: As online dating usage increases, religious importance decreases.
• H2: As religious importance increases, having a religious partner increases.
• H3: As religious importance decreases, having a partner who shares your beliefs and
values decreases.
• RQ: What is the relationship between religiosity and the use of online dating websites?
Method
In order to achieve the required sample size in a short amount of time, this study used
convenience sampling. The method of collecting data was through a survey that was generated
on SurveyGizmo. It exclusively targeted men and women over the age of 18 that were not in a
relationship (single). Furthermore, the survey was distributed on Reddit and Facebook.
On Thursday March 24, 2016 at about 9:00 pm, I published my survey on Reddit’s
“Religion” and “OkCupid” sub-reddits. Directly after publishing my survey on Reddit, I had
accumulated more than 100 complete responses. Combined, these posts accumulated more than
70 comments and 24 up-votes. The Reddit posts remained popular and active for a few days
through the interest and engagement of the users. On the same day, I also shared the survey on
Facebook and gathered a few more responses. Overall, I attained 221 complete responses and 84
partials. My survey required every question to be answered, thus, the 221 complete responses
had no missing data.
Operational Definitions

Age. How old did you turn on your last birthday? Age was measured using numerical
inputs.
Gender. Which term best describes your current gender identity? The response choices
included “Male” (1), “Female” (2), and “Other” (3).
Race. What race do you consider yourself? The response choices included “African-
American or Black” (1), “American Indian or Alaska Native” (2), “Asian” (3), “Caucasian or
White” (4), “Hispanic or Latino” (5), “Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander” (6), “Multiracial”
(7), and “Other” (8).
Religion. What religion do you identify with? The response choices included “Catholic”
(1), “Protestant” (2), “Orthodox” (3), “Buddhist” (4), “Jewish” (5), “Hindu” (6), “Muslim” (7),
“Other” (8), “No religious affiliation” (9), and “Nothing in particular” (10).
Online Dating Usage Time/OkCupid Usage Time. Online dating usage time was
assessed through a 7-point Likert scale. “On a typical day, approximately how much time do you
spend using each of the following online dating sites or applications: OkCupid.” The response
choices included “Do not use ever” (1), “Do not use on a daily basis” (2), “1-15 minutes” (3),
“16-30 minutes” (4), “31-45 minutes” (5), “46-60 minutes” (6), and “Longer than 1 hour” (7).
Relationship Values 1. To measure relationship values 1, respondents had in indicate the
importance of the following statements: “How important is it for you to date someone who
shares your religion?” Relationship values 1 was assessed through a 7-point Likert scale from
“Not at all important” (1) to “Extremely important” (7).
Relationship Values 2. To measure relationship values 2, respondents had in indicate the
importance of the following statement: “How important is it for you to date someone who shares

your beliefs or values?” Relationship values 2 was assessed through a 7-point Likert scale from
“Not at all important” (1) to “Extremely important” (7).
Religious Conviction. To measure religious conviction, respondents had to answer the
following question: “How important is religion to you?” Religious conviction was assessed
through a 7-point Likert scale from “Not at all important” (1) to “Extremely important” (7).
Religious Importance. To measure religious importance, respondents had to indicate the
extent to which they agree or disagree in the following statements: “It doesn’t matter so much
what I believe so long as I live a moral life”, “I refuse to let religious consideration influence my
everyday affairs”, and “My religious beliefs are really what lie behind my whole approach to
life.” Religious importance was assessed through a 7-point Likert scale from “Strongly agree”
(1) to “Strongly disagree” (7). The third statement was reverse coded. The Cronbach’s α for this
index was .823.
Results
Table #1 represents the overall sample within variables to show the statistical data for
each category. This table displays the averages for each variable, as well as, the percentages for
each answer. All of this can help decipher why the results occurred as they did. The survey
involved 221 participants and this is consistent throughout the survey because there is no missing
data. Firstly, the mean age of the participants was about 28 years old and the participants were
mostly in their 20s (standard deviation=9.04936). There were slightly more males (57%) than
females (41.2%) within the survey, with 1.8% identifying as other. The majority race was
Caucasian at 76.9% (standard deviation= .94794). The rest of the races were Asian at 10%,
Multiracial at 5%, African-American at 3.2%, Hispanic at 3.2%, other at 1.4%, and Native
Hawaiian at .5%. A large majority of the participants stated that they had no religious affiliation,

they represented 53.8% of the sample (standard deviation= 3.41910). From there, 15.4% were
Protestant, 11.8% were Catholic, 5.9% specified nothing in particular, 4.5% were other, 1.8%
were Orthodox, Jewish, Hindu, and Muslim. The minority religion was Buddhism at 1.4%.
Furthermore, the mean for OkCupid Usage Time is 2.7104 which correlates to “1-15
minutes” (standard deviation= 1.65071). However, most participants claimed that they never or
rarely used OkCupid. The mean for Relationship Values 1 was 3.8100 which indicated that
participants were neutral concerning the religion of their partner (standard deviation 2.13841).
Nonetheless, the percentages display that neutral was the least chosen response showing that
there was a split between people who found this important and unimportant. The mean for
Relationship Values 2 is 5.5249 which conveys that participants felt that the values of their
partner were very important to them (standard deviation= 1.41600). Additionally, over 75% of
participants felt that this was moderately important to extremely important. Finally, the mean for
religious conviction is 2.6561 which represents that religion is slightly important (standard
deviation= 2.13612). Conversely, 52% of participants stated that religion was not at all
important, as well as, 11.8% of participants stating that religion was of low importance. All of
this data, concerning the sample population, conveys a lot of information regarding the results of
this survey.
Table #2 goes over the normality criteria for the variables within the survey. In order for
normality to be satisfied, the skewness must be between +/- 1 and kurtosis must be between +/-
3. Therefore, most of my variables did satisfy these criteria. Gender, religion, OkCupid usage
time, relationship values 1, religious conviction, and religious importance overall were satisfied
for normality. On the other hand, age, race, and relationship values 2 were not satisfied.

To test the hypotheses and analyze the results, table #3 will be used. The first hypothesis
compares OkCupid usage time with religious importance overall. This hypothesis states that as
online dating usage increases, religious importance decreases. Table #3 reveals that there is a
weak, positive relationship with r=.255. This hypothesis will be accepted because p<0.01.
The second hypothesis relates religious importance overall to relationship values 1. The
hypothesis is that as religious importance increases, having a religious partner increases. Table
#3 indicates that there is a moderate, negative relationship with r=-.455. This hypothesis will be
partially accepted because, although it is the opposite of the hypothesis, there is a relationship
since p<0.01.
The third hypothesis associates religious importance overall to relationship values 2. The
hypothesis declares that as religious importance decreases, having a partner who shares your
beliefs and values decreases. Table #3 shows that there is a weak, negative relationship with r=-
.156. This hypothesis will be partially accepted because, while it is the reverse of the hypothesis,
there is a relationship since p<0.05.
The final hypothesis compares religious conviction to OkCupid usage time. This is,
originally, a research question but is able to be tested with these variables. The research question
asks if there is a relationship between religiosity and the use of online dating websites.
Therefore, religious conviction related to OkCupid usage time can reveal the answer to this
question. Table #3 shows that there is a weak, negative relationship with r=-.343. This
hypothesis will be accepted because p<0.01. Thus, there is a slight relationship between
religiosity and online dating.
Discussion and Conclusion

Firstly, the descriptive data gave a general idea of the outcome of this survey. The
average age of participants was 28 and a majority of them were in there 20s. Considering the
topic of the survey, this age group was imperative since younger generations are more adjusted
to technology and have greater usage with online dating. Another huge factor was the mode
religion which was 9.00 which indicated that most people had no religious affiliation. This most
likely conveyed that they were Atheist which plays a large role in the results of my hypotheses.
Since my survey is based on religion, having over 50% of my participants as Atheists
tremendously skewed the results. This is further represented with the other variables which
mostly conveyed the opinions of Atheists. For example, the mean response for religious
conviction was 2.6561 which represented slight importance for religion and more than 50% of
participant’s chose that religion was not at all important. Consequently, the abundance of atheists
in the survey hugely influenced the results.
The first hypothesis and research question were the focal interest within this survey; to
study the relationship between online dating and religion. They both proved to be correct and
were consistent with each other. The first hypothesis stated that as online dating increases,
religious importance decreases. Likewise, the research question was statistically tested by
comparing religious conviction with OkCupid usage. Although, both of them had weak
relationships, they were accepted since p<0.01. The first hypothesis proved that as online dating
usage increases, religious importance decreases. Equally, the research question proved that as
religiosity increases, online dating usage decreases. It was extremely important that both of these
hypotheses had the same results because it shows consistency and further supports the claims.
The second and third hypotheses displayed extremely interesting results. The second
hypothesis is as religious importance increases, having a religious partner increases. There is a

moderate, negative relationship with religious importance and having a religious partner. Hence,
the hypothesis is the reverse of the results. The results declare that as religious importance
decreases, having a religious partner increases. I think a lot of this has to do with having so many
participants that have “No religious affiliation.” For example, a lot of my participants found
religion to have no importance at all because they were mostly atheists. However, they would
want their partner to be religious like they were, to be atheists. This would justify why the
relationship is negative and the reverse of my original hypothesis.
Similar results occurred for the third hypothesis, as well. The third hypothesis states that
as religious importance decreases, having a partner who shares your beliefs and values decreases.
There is a weak, negative relationship between religious importance and having a partner who
shares your beliefs and values. Thus, the hypothesis is the opposite of the results. The results
proclaim that as religious importance decreases, having a partner who shares your beliefs and
values increases. Correspondingly, I think these results occurred because a majority of the
participants had “No religious affiliation.” The reasoning behind this is that Atheists would
normally choose that religion was not at all important but wanted their partner to share similar
beliefs and values.
There were some limitations that occurred which definitely affected my results. Firstly, I
would have changed the construct of my survey because about 33% of my results were
incomplete. I believe that this drop-out rate was due to some of the unnecessary questions and
options that I included within the survey which didn’t essentially provide information towards
my hypotheses. Furthermore, I would change some of the answers for my survey questions. A
major complaint that I received on Reddit was that I didn’t have “Atheism” as an option for
religion, therefore, I wish I could have included it in the survey. Finally, my participants were

primarily from the OkCupid subreddit and Religion subreddit which was heavily displayed in my
results; more than half of my participants were from the OkCupid subreddit which heavily
skewed the results. If I had more diverse demographics within the sample population, I think my
results would be more accurate and consistent. Considering that my survey concerns religion, I
generally wish I could have had participants with more varied religions. I think the results would
have been altered if there was an equal percentage of different religions.
Previous research was accurate and consistent with the results of this experiment. It was
expected that religiosity would be insignificant with a general online dating website, such as
OkCupid, and that proved to be true (Rudder, 2016). The results of this survey indicated that as
online dating usage increases, religiosity decreases. Prior research conveyed that a fair quantity
of people are Atheists, thus, it was assumed that a reasonable quantity of Atheists would be
participants that use general dating websites (Lynn, 2012). This was supported by the survey
since 50% of participants had no religious affiliation. Furthermore, it was expected that about
15% of individuals would have used an online dating application (Smith, 2016). However, the
findings of this survey convey that a larger percentage of the participants used OkCupid than
anticipated. This goes along with the fact that the “OkCupid” subreddit users were a majority of
the participants.
Considering all of this, future research should try to get a more varied sample population.
This would be a better indicator of relationships between variables because it will represent more
of the general population. Finally, future surveys should investigate these relationships among
more online dating websites. This survey was specifically based off of OkCupid but it would be
interesting to learn if other applications had similar findings. This study verified that religiosity
and online dating usage does have a relationship. However, this is only the commencement to

this research because there is so much more to learn about this correlation. Religion used to be a
crucial aspect in relationships but is not significant at all in online dating. This is very
confounding which is why more research needs to explore this relationship, along with, online
dating as a whole.

References
Ansari, A., & Alter, C. (2015). Love in the Age of Like. Time, 185(22), 40-46.
Cathy, L. (2012). God, religion, atheism 'So what?'. USA Today.
Rosenfeld, Michael J., and Reuben J. Thomas. “Searching for a Mate: The Rise of the Internet as
a Social Intermediary”. American Sociological Review 77.4 (2012): 523–547. Web.
Rudder, Christian. "What Matters, What Doesn't." Time 185.22 (2015): 46. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.
Smith, Aaron. "15% of American Adults Have Used Online Dating Sites or Mobile Dating
Apps." Pew Research Center Internet Science Tech RSS. N.p., 11 Feb. 2016. Web. 18
Feb. 2016.

Table #1: Descriptive statistics for categorical data
Variables Mean/Mode SD Percentage N
Age 28.0090 9.04936 - 221
Gender
Female
Male
Other
1.5806 .49459 -
41.2
57.0
1.8
221
Race
African-American or Black
Asian
Caucasian or White
Hispanic or Latino
Native Hawaiian or Pacific
Islander
Multiracial
Other
4.00 .94794 -
3.2
10.0
76.9
3.2
.5
5.0
1.4
221
Religion
Catholic
Protestant
Orthodox
Buddhist
Jewish
Hindu
Muslim
No religious affiliation
Nothing in particular
Other
9.00 3.41910 -
11.8
15.4
1.8
1.4
1.8
1.8
1.8
53.8
5.9
4.5
221
OkCupid Usage Time
Do not use ever
Do not use on a daily basis
1-15 minutes
16-30 minutes
31-45 minutes
46-60 minutes
Longer than 1 hours
2.7104 1.65071 -
33.5
18.1
16.7
16.3
8.6
4.5
2.3
221
Relationship Values 1
Not at all important
Low importance
Slightly important
Neutral
Moderately important
Very important
Extremely important
3.8100 2.13841 -
22.2
13.1
11.8
8.6
16.7
14.0
13.6
221
Relationship Values 2 5.5249 1.41600 - 221

Low importance
Slightly important
Neutral
Very important
Extremely important
2.7
2.3
6.3
3.6
22.6
38.5
24.0
Religious Conviction
Low importance
Slightly important
Neutral
Very important
Extremely important
2.6561 2.13612 -
52.0
11.8
5.0
5.4
9.0
9.0
7.7
221
Table #2: Normality Test
Variables Skewness Kurtosis Criteria for Normality Satisfied?
Age 2.216 5.607 No
Gender -.329 -1.909 Yes
Race .566 5.787 No
Religion -.712 -1.353 Yes
OkCupid Usage Time .685 -.443 Yes
Relationship Values 1 .042 -1.417 Yes
Relationship Values 2 -1.384 1.790 No
Religious Conviction .893 -.783 Yes
Religious Importance
Overall
-.906 -.233 Yes
Table #3: Hypothesis Test
Variable Pairs r p N
OkCupid Usage Time X Religious Importance
Overall
.255 < 0.01 221
Overall
X Relationship Values 1 -.455 < 0.01 221
Overall
X Relationship Values 2 -.156 < 0.05 221
Religious Conviction X OkCupid Usage Time -.343 <0.01 221

Religiosity Impacts Online Dating Use

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