Relationshopping

Relationshopping—ready to settle down, feeling a strange urge to browse in Volvo showrooms? That means you're looking to move beyond relationsurfing to relationshopping.

Some experts believe that an overpowering fear of commitment may be the driving force behind relationshopping, but that is not likely the case. The fear of commitment is largely determined by past experiences, while relationshopping is based on the future or pure fantasy. Relationshopping is a form of dating speculation. It is a love gamble created by the fear that you may be settling for your current partner and you might be better off with someone else.

[T]he day we head out of the house with a very specific image of a shoe in our heads, we are most likely to go from store to store without finding any that meet our expectations. The same thing can happen when looking for a partner at online dating sites, […] Researchers call this phenomenon relationshopping, and it consists of logging in to a dating site, browsing and analyzing profiles as if they were products in a shop, and ending up with the feeling that there isn't a single one you like.

"Relationshopping" is detrimental to users' romantic relationship goals for two reasons. One, there is evidence that ideal romantic partner preferences do not predict romantic attraction in-person […] Worse, this "relationshopping" spree of profile page evaluation can become a circular process of dissatisfaction.