(Bloomberg) — Online dating may be partially to blame for an increase in income inequality in the US in recent decades, according to a research paper.

Since the emergence of dating apps that allow people to look for a partner based on criteria including education, Americans have increasingly been marrying someone more like themselves. That accounts for about half of the rise in income inequality among households between 1980 and 2020, researchers from the Federal Reserve Banks of Dallas and St. Louis and Haverford College found.