Going on a date with a complete stranger often requires both parties to navigate a minefield of topics and, by the end of what is usually a terrible time, figure out whether or not they have anything in common. But wouldn’t dating just be easier if you already knew all the things that person passionately hated? That’s the idea behind Hater, a new dating app that matches people based on everything they both dislike.
The app, which officially launches February 8, offers its black-hearted users a selection of various topics—like weed, belfies, the gluten-free lifestyle, and yes, don’t worry, Donald Trump—and asks they swipe up if they love it, down if they hate it, right if they like it, and left if they dislike it. Users can also dismiss a topic if they have no opinion. The app then selects a group of people the user might be attracted to based on their shared loathing of certain subjects.
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At launch, the app will include roughly 2,000 topics, but the plan is to eventually have users generate their own odious topics so that the small minority of people who actually hate Beyoncé can finally find one another and have a shot at love.
The whole idea behind Hater was actually a joke, according to CEO Brendan Alper. He told the Cut that he thought of the app while thinking of sketch ideas, after he quit his job at Goldman Sachs to become a comedy writer. “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.
It turns out that Alper’s intuition is actually backed up by science. In 2006, Jennifer Bosson, a social psychologist at the University of South Florida, found that people form friendships more easily with people who hate the same things they do and published a series of studies about it.
While it’s been said that love will tear us apart, maybe Hater will at least help some of us with hate in our hearts hook up more successfully.
