What Is The ‘Reality Check Calculator’ That Went Viral On Tinder?

Trying to find the perfect partner is no easy task, and in March 2022, something called the ‘Reality Check Calculator‘ claimed to put people’s high expectations into perspective. Thanks to the rise of dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, and others, meeting new people is easier today than it’s ever been. Sign up for one of the apps, browse through people you’re interested in, and filter out good matches from bad ones.

While all of that sounds simple enough on paper, actually finding your soulmate is anything but. That’s because you can only learn so much from someone’s online dating profile. It takes time to get to know someone, learn what they’re like, and figure out if they’re the ‘one.’ Dating apps have made the search for love more accessible, but there’s still a lot of work involved.

That point was highlighted in March 2022 when a (now deleted) post when viral on the r/Tinder subreddit. While the user’s name is no longer viewable, the post read as follows: “I saw this reality check calculator earlier and decided to try it out. I thought my (21F) standards aren’t too high.” The post contained a link to a website called the ‘Female Delusion Calculator.’ The website’s creator claims that “women often have unrealistic expectations” when looking for a partner. In an effort to prove that point, the calculator asks women to enter a few details about what they’re looking for in a man and uses “surveys conducted by US Census Bureau and NCHS” to show how many matches are really out there. The whole thing comes off as condescending and a bit derogatory, but regardless, it has people all over the internet talking nonstop about it.

How The Reality Check Calculator Works

If you want to play around with the calculator yourself, it all starts by visiting ‘igotstandardsbro.com.’ You’re then asked to enter the age and race of men you’re interested in. The reality check calculator also asks users to enter their desired height and income details for their ‘perfect’ partner. Once all that’s entered, clicking the ‘Find out’ button shows the probability of meeting a man in the United States with that criteria.

It also didn’t take long for internet sleuths to find the male equivalent of the reality check calculator. If you’re a man and want to see the chances of finding the perfect woman, the ‘Male Reality Calculator’ does exactly that. Head to ‘realitycalc.com,’ fill in the information about your ideal woman, and click ‘Find out’ to see the probability of finding someone that checks all the boxes.

As interesting as it can be to play with the websites and see the different results you get, neither of them should be taken seriously. It’s hard to know if they were created to be legitimate or sarcastic. Regardless, having a website poke fun at your preferences in a partner isn’t helpful for anyone. The statistical data is interesting, sure, but the way it’s presented on both sites shouldn’t be taken as legitimate dating advice. And that’s really all the reality check calculator boils down to. It’s an odd thing that’s easy to mess around with, worth poking fun at, and there’s nothing more to it.

Source: r/Tinder

About The Author

Joe Maring
(1523 Articles Published)

Joe has been actively writing and talking about consumer tech since 2012. His biggest passion lies with smartphones, but he’s happy to talk your ear off about just about anything with a CPU. He lives in Kalamazoo, MI with his wife, two cats, and pit bull/boxer mix.

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