Tinder's in-house sociologist explains how to score a date for Valentine's Day

With every Tinder swipe, Dr. Jess Carbino gets a little bit closer to a clear picture of modern online dating. As the dating app's in-house sociologist, Carbino has a constantly growing wealth of data to draw from and, in turn, a ton of tips for how to improve a user's rate of matches. SEE ALSO: The internet baes who'breadcrumb' you and never meet you in person As Valentine's Day draws near, we spoke to Carbino about what brought her to Tinder, "cuffing season" and the data-backed reason why you should rethink wearing a hat in your profile photo. "I think everybody is really curious about what drives human behavior generally, and I was very curious about what drove people to be attracted to certain people. When I first moved to Los Angeles, I was 23-years-old and I was single and interested in meeting people, and I tried to use online dating. Until the emergence of online dating, sociologists like myself had never had a natural data set to work with. I was absolutely fascinated by how people presented themselves, the types of things they would say about themselves, who would correspond with whom, the process by which people connected with each other in a more meaningful way. I thought to myself, this is really fascinating -- how can we understand what's occurring in a really systematic way? Until the emergence of online dating, sociologists like myself had never had a natural data set to work with to really understand how attraction works and what people like, dislike and how they ultimately partner. So, it's really interesting to see it play out in a really contained environment."