What Makes People Swipe Right?

If you're single and dating, you know the drill: You're sitting on your couch, mindlessly swiping through potential prospects on a dating app. For the most part, the experience is relatively unimpressive. Left, left, left, left, left; your index finger might even start to feel like it can only physically go in one direction. Then, suddenly, someone's profile catches your eye. You stop and examine the photos and responses. Finally, you decide to do something bold: You swipe right.

Now, only one question remains. Why?

According to some scientific research, the reasons behind swiping right are varied and more deeply embedded in our psyches than you might think. It's all about forming a series of instant judgments on someone's level of attractiveness, their personality based on their responses, and even how much they do or don't look like us.

"Facial features that are familiar to us, we tend to find more attractive," Dr. Laura Germine, researcher in psychiatric genetics, explained to Bustle. "Probably because of the sheer level of exposure we have to those sorts of facial features."

All of that aside, it's interesting to examine what makes one swipe right after spending so much time swiping left — sometimes it's about appearance, sure, but sometimes there's more to it than that. Maybe you like what they had to say in their profile, maybe you love their style, maybe they seem like a funny person, or maybe — but probably definitely — it's because they have a very, very cute dog.

Of course, there's no one formula that dictates what makes a person swipe left or right on a dating app. For Bustle's Digital Love series, a group of millennials sat down to discuss what makes them swipe right. Check out their answers in the video above.

Executive Creative Director: Lauren Sofair

Executive Producer: Whitney Buxton

Producer: Lauren Tegtmeyer

Director Of Photography: Marshall Stief

Videographer: Sam Cowan

Editor: Meline Rosales

Design Director: Andenew Ayele

Motion Designer: Jeff Donlan

Video Assistant: Sasha Mahmood

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