New Dating App Hater Matches People Based On Shared Dislikes

If you think Tinder is grimy and Bumble just isn’t for you, then Hater is the new dating app you have to try. Made for curmudgeons, Hater connects people by the things they hate (be it camping, Taylor Swift, paying for guacamole or otherwise), as opposed to the things they like. The app’s tagline is “Hate. Love. Meet.”

We have to say, it’s a pretty genius idea.

The app officially launched just a few days ago (and right in time for Valentine’s Day!) and currently has about 2,000 topics available for hating. Users can swipe up on a topic if they love it, down if they hate it, right if they like it and left if they dislike it. You can also dismiss a topic if you don’t care one way or another.

Based on these responses, Hater selects a group of people the swiper might be attracted to… all based on their shared hatreds. Eventually, the app plans to crowdsource the potential hatreds, but for now 2,000 options is plenty.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQTb-5whET9/?taken-by=lovethroughhate

If this idea seems ridiculous to you, that’s because it initially started as a joke. CEO Brendan Alper told New York Magazine in an interview that the entire app was conceived during a brainstorming session for comedy sketch ideas.

“The more I thought about it, the more I thought, ‘Hey even though this was a funny idea, it actually makes a lot of sense,'” he said.

And actually, the idea makes sense in science. According to research from the University of South Florida, a study led by social psychologist Jennifer Bosson found that people were more likely to connect with someone when they believed “that they shared a negative—as opposed to a positive—attitude.”

“It’s not that we enjoy disliking people,” Bosson said in an interview. “It’s that we enjoy meeting people who dislike the same people.”

So hate on, Haters. It just might find you a significant other who despises gluten-free baked goods as much as you do.