Can you find love from hate? That seems like a profound philosophical question, but a new app is putting the idea to the test. Hater pairs people off not on their mutual tastes, but rather their loathings and distastes. Hooray?
Despite the name, New York Magazine notes you can express love on Hater too. You’re presented with a range of hot button topics, ranging from political concepts to dietary preferences, and you swipe up for love, down for hate, right for like and left for “Meh.” Eventually they’ll add user-suggested topics, although CEO Brendan Alper notes they’ll be vetting those carefully, considering what the internet can do to polls.
To be fair, this isn’t a new idea in the dating app space. OKCupid’s notorious questionnaires use likes and dislikes as part of their compatibility calculations, for example. And scientifically, there may be something to it: Professor Jennifer Bosson, of the University of South Florida, has found that disliking the same people can help us form stronger friendships. Which doesn’t say much for the human race, really, but it proves people who play their music over their phone’s speaker on public transportation really do have a purpose in life by tying us closer together.
Hater will put that to the test when it launches February 8th.