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Held back on Hinge

Does being vegan make or break your chances on dating apps? To find out, I put two Hinge profiles to the test—one proudly carnivorous, the other strictly vegan—to see how dietary choices influence matches, messages, and romantic potential.

With text prompt likes 47% more likely to lead to a date according to Hinge, users are under pressure to share more about their lives—including what’s on their plate. The app, now a firm favourite among twenty-something Londonites, has been crowned “the best dating app for young people looking for love” by The Telegraph.

Unlike the swipe-and-go simplicity of other apps, Hinge demands a bit more effort: detailed bios, voice notes, multiple-choice questions, and cleverly crafted prompts designed to reveal your personality. Its slogan, “the dating app designed to be deleted,” only works if you’re willing to be authentically yourself—at least according to the user guidelines.

And for many, food is no small matter. If you both love pizza, it's clearly meant to be. Or maybe you're a fan of the “Olive Theory,” which claims a relationship is stronger when one partner sacrifices something (like olives) for the other. Since so many first dates revolve around food, it begs the question: are people swiping based on ethics and eating habits before you’ve even said hello?

The Dating Dish-Off: Experiment Parameters

To keep things fair and deliciously scientific, I laid down a few ground rules for this Hinge experiment:

Absolutely no swiping — no matter how tempting it is to chase a dopamine hit (or your soulmate).
Only match with people who send likes or roses — the effort must come to me, darling.
Each profile will be live for 3 days, from Friday to Sunday — peak dating hours, naturally.
Identical photos on both profiles, in the same order — except the third image, which features either a meat dish or a plant-based plate, profile dependent.
Same bio and prompts on both profiles, with only the prompt answers tailored to either a carnivorous or vegan persona.
Unless someone sends a message with their like or rose, I’ll open with the same icebreaker: “We’re at a restaurant—what food are you ordering for the table?”

Ready, Steady, Match!

The games began the moment the profiles went live. The meat-loving profile came out swinging, landing its first like a mere 17 seconds after launch. The vegan profile, meanwhile, took a more leisurely approach — a full 24 minutes passed before the matches started rolling in. Peak swiping hours for both personas were firmly between 9:00 and 10:30am — proving the early bird really does catch the worm (or in this case, the walking red flag).

This entire experiment hinged on one hope: that I’d get enough organic engagement to draw some semi-legitimate, culinary-based conclusions. Thankfully, the gamble paid off. Both profiles performed impressively during their three-day stints — though whether that says more about the power of dietary preferences, my profile pics, or the tragic state of modern dating is anyone’s guess.

But we do have a clear winner. The meat profile raked in a whopping 855 likes and roses, compared to the vegan profile’s still impressive 494.

Now, it’s worth noting on the free version of Hinge, users are limited to eight likes per day and just one rose per week (roses being the app’s version of a super like — essentially saying “I’m obsessed with you, and I don’t care who knows it”). With 23 million global users and only 1.4 million paying subscribers as of 2024, it’s safe to say most of the people I interacted with were rationing their digital affection.

The Saucy Stats:

Over 1 in 5 meat-profile matches were roses.
Fewer than 1 in 5 vegan-profile matches were roses.
The meat profile had a stronger conversion rate to date invitations: 70% asked within the first five messages, versus 60% for the vegan profile.
The vegan profile matched with zero self-identified vegans, while the meat profile matched with one vegan (love does conquer all, apparently).
Five people suggested Le Relais de l'Entrecôte as a date spot for the meat profile. Now we know where London's steak lovers go to wine and dine.
The meat profile received 15 “marry me” comments in response to its food-related prompts. The vegan profile got four — and those were all about the pictures, not the plant-based patter.

Where Are All the Vegan Men?

It seems the carnivore came out on top — not just in raw numbers, but in sheer enthusiasm, with more roses, quicker responses, and enough “marry me” messages to make your nan blush.

However, the most interesting result was the complete lack of vegan-on-vegan action. Despite proudly waving the vegan flag, the profile didn’t attract a single fellow vegan yet the meat profile gained one vegan match! That said, the vegan persona did pique the interest of over 10 vegetarians, suggesting that while full-blown herbivorous love might be rare, there’s still plenty of appetite for plant-leaning partnerships.

According to a survey by The Vegan Society, only 37% of vegans in the UK are male — which could explain the scarcity of vegan suitors. Add to that the gender dynamics of online dating, and things get even more skewed. Hinge, for example, has around 64% male and 36% female users. In a digital world where men often outnumber women, and women have more choice, it's plausible that some men might downplay aspects of their identity — like being vegan — if they fear it could limit their appeal. After all, we all like to be picked now and then.

But let’s be clear: this experiment wasn’t about proving that one lifestyle is inherently sexier than the other — it was about exploring how something as seemingly small as a dietary label can influence first impressions in the swipe-happy dating sphere.

Yes, the meat profile was more instantly popular. But popularity doesn’t equal compatibility. The vegan profile, while attracting fewer likes, sparked much deeper conversations. Once my standard opener had been dropped, messages rolled in with thoughtful questions like:

“Do you mind if your partner’s not vegan?”
“What’s your vegan story?”
“Where’s your favourite spot for vegan food in London?”

The meat profile, in contrast, received a more… shall we say alpha male energy reception — less tofu talk, more “Let’s go grab some steak then!”.

Ultimately, the biggest takeaway from this whole love-meat-love-me-not saga? Don’t place validation over veganism if it’s a dating deal breaker for you.

Scroll to see some of our tastiest chat-up lines and conversations below: