WASHINGTON — The federal government has spent nearly half a million dollars studying gay hookup apps to determine whether they increase the likelihood that gay men will engage in risky sexual behavior.
Free Beacon reports that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded $432,000 to Columbia University to interview gay men who use GPS dating apps such as Grindr.
“Smartphone technologies have provided a new venue for sexual partnering among men who have sex with men (MSM),” the grant for the project states. “Indeed, there are a rapidly growing number of smartphone applications designed to facilitate sexual partnering among MSM.”
The project argues that dating apps that use the Global Positioning System, or GPS, has “accelerated” the rate that gay men can find sexual partners, compared to online.
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The study is examining “how and why smartphone applications are used for sexual partnering,” how gay men “present themselves,” communicate, and what they look for on apps like Grindr.
