“Tinder co-founder Jonathan Badeen told Jo Sales that the dating app's swiping feature was partially inspired by a famous experiment by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner. In it, Skinner "turned pigeons into gamblers" by giving them food delivered at random intervals. But the pigeons believed their pecking prompted the food to appear, causing the birds to ceaselessly hammer away at their trays.”
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/14/1231513991/tinder-hinge-match-group-lawsuit