Why three is enough.
Barry Schwartz called it the paradox of choice. More options, less enjoyment. A short read, and what we do with it.
The experiment is famous. In a supermarket, set out 24 jams on a table. People stop, taste, walk away. Conversion: three percent. Set out six. People linger less. Conversion: thirty percent.
Ten times more choice led to ten times fewer decisions.
On dating apps it's exactly the same. An endless queue of profiles makes each profile less valuable. Not because they are, but because the next one might always be better.
Psychologists call it maximizing. Maximizers are objectively happier with their choice once they have evidence it was best. But in dating you never get that evidence. So you stay in doubt, you stay swiping, you stay unsatisfied.
Three matches forces the opposite: satisficing. Recognizing "good enough". Not "ideal partner per list" but "the conversations work, I want more".
Boring? Maybe. Also: how the relationships that actually work tend to begin.