Hey Lover, Vaccine Dating Has Momentum
Person holding a phone with a dating app.
The new dating pull for summer? Who has the vaccine and who doesn't. The COVID vaccine is shaping up to be one key detail people looking for love shouldn't be leaving out of their online profile. With an MFactor of 22 for vaccines and dating apps, vaccine dating has momentum.
MFactor is a proprietary tool that measures cultural momentum through topic modeling and sentiment analysis.
A few months back, we invited Momentum Master Serena Kerrigan to curate an issue of our Up & Down email, and her predictions from February’s Up & Down are coming true now. “The dating pull on profiles used to be ‘I have the antibodies.’ Now with vaccines coming out, it's going to be ‘I have the vaccine.’”
Kerrigan is the creator, producer, and host of Let’s Fucking Date, the first reality show entirely on Instagram Live. She’s been featured on The Today Show, CNBC, Forbes, and the New York Post, and she is a figurehead in dating culture.
The mechanics of vaccine dating
By design, dating apps offer a glimpse into a potential partner’s life. Online profiles and bios reveal a romantic match’s dietary preferences, hobbies, favorite TV shows, and now, their COVID vaccine status. This trend goes beyond a small group of people posting “I’ve had my shots.”
Amid the pandemic, accounting for vaccination status helps users establish common ground with potential matches on apps, similar to listing one’s political party or alcohol interests. The idea of vaccine dating allows users to question an interest’s health and safety priorities in relation to their own, while also reassuring vaccine-conscious swipers.
Vaccine & antibodies mentions have spiked
Tinder’s Future of Dating Report found that, since the beginning of the pandemic, the words “vaccine” and “antibodies” have increased eightfold and twentyfold, respectively. Dating site OKCupid went even further, expanding on research regarding COVID vaccination mentions in bios to calculate match compatibility. The company found that those who responded “yes” to the question “Will you get the COVID-19 vaccine?” received 20% more likes and 12% more matches than those who said “no.”
While we hope that someday we won’t feel a need to display our vaccine statuses on our dating profiles, for now, vaccine dating is here to stay.
For folks wanting to get more dates, get vaccinated, get more comfortable, and get more matches.
For brands, what can you do to spark relationships with your customers and send a message of safety?