Half of Women Polled Have Emotionally Withdrawn From Dating

By Suzanne Blake

Reporter, Consumer & Social Trends

ShareNewsweek is a Trust Project member

A new report found that half of women have emotionally withdrawn from dating, a reflection on the pervasive doubts swirling in today’s romance culture.

The new survey from MyIQ revealed that across a sample of 2,418 women, 74 percent said they experienced romantic uncertainty as standard and nearly half had emotionally withdrawn from dating as a result.

Why It Matters

Dating culture has shifted dramatically in recent years, turning from primarily in-person interactions to majorly online and via apps.

The rise of technology often has women complaining about an abundance of low-quality, commitment-phobic matches, whereas men complain about low to zero matches, with both genders often experiencing expectation gaps once on a date.

...

What To Know

Across the sample of nearly 2,500 women ages 18 to 45, 62 percent reported being in at least one "situationship," and 74 percent said they experience romantic uncertainty as standard. A situationship is an intimate connection among friends minus the typical restraints of formal dating.

Due to this uncertainty, almost half have emotionally withdrawn from dating entirely.

Men were found to use more low-effort dating tactics than women, with 57 percent saying they utilize them compared to just 29 percent of women.

Reflecting some of their frustrations with uncertainty in the dating sphere, women were also likely to be ghosted, at 68 percent. Still, only 41 percent of men acknowledged they had ghosted someone.

The standard of uncertainty is affecting women’s actions in early dating, as 37 percent said they delay exclusivity conversations to avoid destabilizing their connections.

Other recent studies have reflected shifting norms in dating culture as well as a growing frustration with apps specifically. A whopping 65 percent of dating apps get deleted within a month, according to another recent AppsFlyer survey. And of those who uninstall the apps, 90 percent do it within a week.

Another recent Hint App report found 82 percent of women said they’re finished with situationships.

What People Are Saying

Morgan Anderson, licensed clinical psychologist and relationship coach, previously to Newsweek: "Deleting dating apps is a rebellion against the digital dating scene that feels superficial and exhausting to so many people. The trend of returning to 'dating in the wild' is a breath of fresh air to so many daters who feel burnt out from endless swiping, and failed connections."

Leigh Roberts, PR manager for Hint App, previously to Newsweek: "This rejection of situationships suggests that dating culture is moving away from tolerance of uncertainty as the norm. Historically, ambiguity has often been normalized as part of the modern dating script, disproportionately leaving women to manage the emotional fallout. Hint’s data shows that women are no longer willing to carry that burden. They are reframing dating as a process of choice rooted in self-knowledge, rather than as a reactive search for validation."

What Happens Next

As more women report uncertainty as the dating norm, many could opt out of dating entirely, as reflected by the half of women feeling emotionally withdrawn in the MyIQ report.

“By stepping away from situationships, women are not opting out of intimacy, but opting into intentionality,” Roberts also previously told Newsweek. “They are normalizing discernment and reshaping the cultural narrative around relationships as something built on reflection and alignment, not just momentum."

Request Reprint & LicensingSubmit CorrectionView Editorial & AI Guidelines