Situationships Feel Close. The Trust Numbers Say Otherwise.
A May 2026 Sexuality & Culture study finds situationships tied to lower trust, even when partners text constantly. Hinge's Logan Ury calls the pattern a situationship epidemic and offers three clarifying questions.
A situationship can look busy from the outside: good mornings, late nights, shared playlists, a standing Friday. What it often lacks is a label and a shared future. New research says that missing piece is not cosmetic. It shows up in trust.
In a May 2026 open-access paper in Sexuality & Culture, Michael R. Langlais and Faith Davidson at Baylor University asked 261 emerging adults about their last three romantic relationship experiences. About 34.1% of those experiences were situationships, defined as romantic connections marked by ambiguity and an absence of clear labels or commitment. Treat the sample carefully: it is a convenience sample of undergraduates, not a national census. Even so, the pattern is useful for anyone living in the undefined middle.
Across communication channels, situationship status reliably predicted lower trust in the partner and lower perceived partner trust. Talking more did not erase the gap. Face-to-face, phone, and most other modalities still showed the same main effect: ambiguity came with thinner trust.
The texting exception
One wrinkle: at high texting frequency, situationships were linked with relatively higher perceived partner trust. Frequent texts may compensate for missing labels, at least in how safe the other person feels. That is not the same as a defined relationship. It is a digital patch over an undefined one.
Situationships get sold as low-pressure freedom. Langlais and Davidson's trust findings, plus Hinge's user research on disappointment, suggest the cost is often emotional security, not just vocabulary.
Busy phones are not the same as clarity
The study's practical warning is simple. More communication generally tracked with more trust, but being in a situationship still predicted lower trust overall. You can reply all day and still feel less secure than someone with a quieter, named relationship. That helps explain why situationships feel so draining in diaspora households. Friends may already know the person. Parents may not. The relationship is intimate enough to rearrange your weekends and too vague to survive an auntie's direct question. Our guide on partners who will not introduce you to family is often the same plot with different furniture.
What Hinge's Logan Ury tells daters stuck in the middle
Hinge Lead Relationship Scientist Logan Ury has called the broader pattern a situationship epidemic in interviews, including with Glamour. She notes that comfort with ambiguity is rising, especially among Gen Z, and that the talking stage is not limited to one generation. In Hinge user research cited in that coverage, 62% said their last situationship left them disappointed, and more than a third said they were upset. When users were asked why a relationship was hard to define, 56% said they did not know what the other person wanted. Brand research, yes. Still a clean description of the ache. Ury's exit questions are deliberately plain: Do I know who I am and what I want? Do I know what they want? Have we talked about it? If the answer to the third is no, you are not in a mysterious destiny. You are in an unfinished conversation.
A script that does not need a speech
Try one sentence with a date attached: "I like what we have. I want exclusivity and a plan to meet each other's people. Can we decide that this month?" Then listen. If they need more time, set a check-in. If they refuse the conversation, you already have data. Pair that ask with a real outing from our City Life date-night planners so the talk is not only a text thread. Ambiguity thrives in endless chat. It wilts a little faster over coffee with a calendar hold. If family pressure is the reason you keep things soft-launched forever, our dating-recession brief and early-dating hub cover the other half: empty calendars versus undefined ones. Different problems. Same need for a named next step.
Keep reading: When They Won't Introduce You to Their Family, Hiding Your Relationship From Family (And When Secrecy Stops Working), Dating When Parents Keep Asking When You Will Marry, and Meeting Parents Too Early vs Too Late (When Relatives Push the Timeline).
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