Are anxiously attached dating app users less successful and feeling worse after use? The moderating role of perceived anonymity affordance

Previous research has demonstrated that anxiously attached individuals have frustrating dating experiences in face-to-face communication. However, little research has tested the association between attachment anxiety and dating experiences in mediated communication. To fill this gap, we drew upon attachment theory to examine how dating app users’ attachment anxiety is associated with how they feel after using dating apps via their perceived dating app success. Additionally, we tested whether the relationship between attachment anxiety and perceived success was moderated by perceived anonymity affordance in dating app use. Using a survey of 381 dating app users (age range = [18, 60], Mage = 29.19, SDage = 6.02; 52.6% were women), we found that individuals who reported more attachment anxiety also felt less successful. In turn, perceiving less dating app success was related to feeling worse after using dating apps. However, perceived anonymity affordance attenuated the negative association between attachment anxiety and dating app success. That is, more attachment anxiety was not associated with less success among participants who perceived dating apps to afford high anonymity. With these findings, we demonstrate that, just like in face-to-face dating, attachment anxiety is related to lower success, and in turn, poorer affective well-being in the context of mobile dating, but indirect associations via dating app success were moderated by perceived anonymity affordance.