Tinder Gives Users A Hidden Desirability Score

You might think Tinder is all fun and games, but in reality, the app is totally judging you.

According to a site called Fast Company, every user gets secretly given an internal ‘Elo Score’, (basically a hotness rating) based on your desirability. This number is then used to facilitate matches for you based on other people’s scores.

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Ergo, the higher you rate, the more likely Leonardo DiCaprio is to come up in your matches – while those with a lower score may not be seen at all.

But before you go freaking out, rest assured it’s not just your looks this algorithm is based on (cough).

According to Tinder CEO Sean Rad, your rating isn’t just a measure of how attractive you are, though it’s unclear what other factors come into play.

“It’s not just how many people swipe right on you,” Rad said. “It’s very complicated. It took us two and a half months just to build the algorithm because a lot of factors go into it.”

Adds Tinder data engineer Tor Solli-Nowlan, attractiveness is relative to each person, so what might be desirable to one person, isn’t necessarily desirable to another.

“People are really polarised on even just a photographic level: Some people really favor facial hair, while some do not,” Solli-Nowlan told Fast Company. “Same thing with tattoos, photos with pets or children, excessive outdoors shots, or photos of you with a tiger.”

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“Every swipe is in a way casting a vote,” Tinder data analyst Chris Dumler added. “I find this person more desirable than this person, whatever motivated you to swipe right. It might be because of attractiveness, or it might be because they had a really good profile.”

While the ‘El Score’ is a scary thought, at least it hasn’t been made public...yet.