“Kan da se træningen går godt, for daamn ser du godt ud”

En interaktionsanalyse af komplimenter på datingappen Tinder

Resumé

This paper examines compliments and responses to compliments on Tinder in a Danish context. The results are based on 149 conversations from 2020 to 2022, which I have received from six users. The most frequent topic for compliments is ‘appearance’, the second most is ‘profession’, and the least frequent are ‘possession’ and ‘ability’. I also found that the ‘piropos’, i.e. sexually charged compliments, weren’t well received. Men give more compliments than women, as they’re giving approx. 81 % of the compliments. The most common compliment for both sexes are related to appearance, and women compliment ‘personality’ more than men. The responses to the compliments are mostly ‘evasion’, specifically ‘legitimate evasion’, such as the compliment being embedded in a question. The second most frequent response type is ‘acceptance’, whereas ‘rejection’ almost never occurs. These results differ from studies of compliments in other languages than Danish, where evasion doesn’t occur as much. This could point to a specific complimenting behavior in a Danish context. I found no statistical significance between the sexes regarding compliment responses. I also examined and enlightened how conversation participants use compliments to maintain or enhance their own or others’ face, and how they are used to establish “common ground” and build intimacy.