Purpose

Online dating facilitates both dater interactions and rejections. Given the vast offer of potential mates and daters' limited time, several rejections may occur. On online dating platforms, most of these rejections are simply the absence of a reply (ignoring). The purpose of this paper is to compare the impact of implicit rejection (ignoring) vs explicit rejection (declining) on the behavioral intentions of daters, considering self-esteem as a moderator.

Design/methodology/approach

Experiment 1 investigated the effect of the extent of rejection (implicit vs explicit vs control) on the behavioral intentions of online daters. Experiment 2 assessed observers' recommended actions to a male (vs female) online dater following rejection (implicit vs explicit vs control).

Findings

Implicit rejections generate greater behavioral intentions than explicit rejections. Both daters (study 1) and observers of the dating scenario (study 2) indicated greater intent to revise their profiles (study 1) or recommend a profile revision (study 2) when implicitly (vs explicitly) rejected by interaction partners. Self-esteem moderated the effect of the extent of rejection. Higher levels of self-esteem eliminate and lower levels of self-esteem intensify the effect of the extent of rejection on behavioral intentions. Additionally, observers' recommendations based on the extent of rejection depend on the rejected dater's gender.

Originality/value

Ignoring is a frequent practice among dating platform users, and this paper provides an original contribution to better understand the differences stemming from implicit or explicit rejection of online daters.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2020-0207

中文翻译：

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隐性（与显性）拒绝对在线约会者行为意图的影响

目的

在线约会有助于约会者的互动和拒绝。鉴于潜在配偶的大量报价和约会者的有限时间，可能会发生多次拒绝。在在线约会平台上，大多数拒绝只是因为没有回复（忽略）。本文的目的是比较隐性拒绝（忽略）与显性拒绝（拒绝）对约会者行为意图的影响，将自尊视为调节因素。

设计/方法/方法

实验 1 调查了拒绝程度（隐性 vs 显性 vs 控制）对在线约会者行为意图的影响。实验 2 评估了观察者在被拒绝（隐性 vs 显性 vs 控制）后向男性（与女性）在线约会者推荐的行为。

发现

隐性拒绝比明确拒绝产生更大的行为意图。约会者（研究 1）和约会场景（研究 2）的观察者都表示，在被互动合作伙伴暗中（与明确）拒绝时，更愿意修改他们的个人资料（研究 1）或推荐修改个人资料（研究 2）。自尊调节了拒绝程度的影响。较高水平的自尊消除和较低水平的自尊加强了拒绝程度对行为意图的影响。此外，观察员基于拒绝程度的建议取决于被拒绝约会者的性别。

原创性/价值

忽略是约会平台用户的常见做法，本文提供了原创性的贡献，以更好地理解因隐含或明确拒绝在线约会者而产生的差异。

同行评审

本文的同行评审历史可从以下网址获得：https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2020-0207