Adults shun in-person flirting over rejection fears

Flirting in person is becoming harder to read in an age where almost every emotional exchange can be delayed, edited, or carefully softened behind a screen. And it is not that people are feeling less attraction. Rather, it is that they are increasingly terrified of expressing it in real time.

A new Hint App survey of 14,862 adults across the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and Latin America points to a growing divide between what people feel in the moment and what they are willing to show face-to-face. Researchers say this may mean that modern romance is quietly shifting from spontaneous interaction to carefully managed digital expression.

The findings paint a picture of attraction that still exists in abundance, but is increasingly trapped behind hesitation. A striking 71 per cent of respondents say they feel more confident expressing attraction by text than in person. Additionally, 63 per cent of respondents admit they have avoided flirting face-to-face even when they were interested. 

At the same time, 67 per cent of persons surveyed say they struggle to tell when someone is flirting in real time, turning what once may have been instinctive chemistry into uncertainty. 

More than half (58 per cent) say texting gives them control over tone and helps them avoid embarrassment, while 52 per cent describe in-person flirting as simply too immediate and too exposing to manage comfortably.

Kirill Liakh, managing director of Hint App, says the pattern reflects a deeper change in how people handle emotional vulnerability, arguing that real-world flirting now demands a level of exposure many are no longer accustomed to. 

“The issue is not that people no longer feel attraction offline. It is that real-time flirting asks for a kind of exposure many people have become less used to. Text creates a buffer between feeling something and having to show it,” he said.