Out of My League: Dating Preferences of Individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder

Close relationships and especially romantic relationships are paramount to mental and physical health. Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) experience difficulties in forming romantic relationships.

We examined explicit and implicit partner preferences of individuals with (n = 52) and without SAD (n = 52) in a lab-based task that simulates online dating applications.

Consistent with our preregistered hypotheses, individuals with SAD indicated their desire to meet others who were less attractive and less dominant compared to individuals without SAD. In addition, women swiped right in response to profile pictures that were more attractive and more dominant compared to men. Finally, discrepancies between explicit and implicit measures of partner preferences in attractiveness, dominance, and positivity were found.

Our findings expand the understanding of mating selection strategies in SAD and can inform therapeutic interventions for the disorder.