Romantic Ideologies and Dating App Practices Among Heterosexual Gen Z Young Adults

• In Event: Sociology of Sexualities Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Sexuality, Dating, and Partnerships

Abstract

Although the move towards gender equality has progressed over the decades, scholars have demonstrated that attitudes sometimes differ depending on whether the context is the public or private sphere, meaning that people may support gender equality in the workplace but not so much in the home and family, specifically with regard to intimate relationships and dating. With the ubiquitousness of dating app use, especially among today's young adults, it is important to investigate romantic ideologies and expectations among Gen Z young adults to acquire a more nuanced understanding of their views on gendered norms in dating and relationships and how these views map onto their dating app practices. The data for this dissertation come from a subsample of heterosexual young adult dating app users (n=56) as part of a larger project in which trained, undergraduate students at a large predominantly white public university in the southeast, conducted peer-facilitated interviews during the fall 2024 and spring 2025 semesters with other young adults between the ages of 18 to 25 in the U.S. about their dating app experiences. Through both inductive and deductive analyses of interview data, I develop a Typology of Romantic Ideologies to illustrate the connections and disconnections between the participants’ dating expectations and relationship expectations. I then apply this typology to the participants' dating app practices, assessing mismatches between ideologies and behaviors. Findings were overall consistent with previous literature that shows that even those that desire more egalitarian relationships tend to expect and engage in more gender-traditional dating practices (Lamont 2021). I extend on this literature by applying this to dating app behaviors, and find that heterosexual young adults largely reproduce the heteronormative scripts on the dating apps, though there are some discrepancies between ideologies and online practices. The adherence to, and reproduction of traditional dating and relationship desires, expectations, and behaviors, demonstrates the stability of the heteronormative sexual script even in online spaces among Gen Z young adults.

Author

• Shelby Lynn Clark, University of Arkansas