MEDICAL XPRESS -- Your personality and sexual orientation could affect how you use online dating sites — even if your uses do not include finding a life partner, according to a new study led by SF State researcher Chris Clemens.
Clemens, an assistant professor of Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts, and his colleagues surveyed 687 people to see if personality traits, biological sex or sexual orientation could predict why they used dating sites such as Match.com or eHarmony.com.
The heavy use of the sites by homosexuals could be especially important, as the sites may provide a safe space for people in areas of the country where being an out homosexual is not necessarily a good thing, Clemens says. “They offer a way to be able to meet other people without facing ramifications, either social or physical.”
The study, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, also included questions to determine each person’s dominant personality traits.