In the era of “everything is politically charged”, one might wonder if this politics-first approach has truly permeated every facet of society. Specifically, our research team was interested in learning if politics played any sort of a role in how singles selected their romantic partners.
It’s widely accepted that things like religion, interests, and lifestyle play into how we as humans select who we share our time with. But what about politics? Is this something singles are considering when deciding who to date and who to swipe left on?
Our data team asked 500 people aged 18-54 living in the United States who had used an online dating app within the last year, “Are politics important to you when selecting a romantic partner?” with the possible answer choices of ‘Very important’, ‘Somewhat important’, or ‘Not important’.
Key Findings
Nearly two-thirds of people aged 18-54 say politics is important when selecting a romantic partner (62.90%).
- The majority of people studied classified politics as ‘Somewhat important’ (37.70%). — 25.20% stated it was very important, and 37.10% said it was not important at all.
- Men and women were equally as likely to say it was of at least some level of importance. — (62.99% and 62.80%, respectively.)
- However, men were more likely to say it was very important. — (30.31% to 20.00%, respectively.)
- Respondents aged 25-34 were the most likely age bracket to say that politics are very important when selecting a romantic partner. — (28.35%)
- Females aged 34-44 were the least likely to say that politics were very important when selecting a romantic partner (12.70%) — Conversely, males aged 18-24 were the most likely (36.51%).
Table of Contents
- Overall Results – Are Politics Important to You When Selecting a Romantic Partner?
- Breakdown of Results by Gender
- Breakdown of Results by Age
- Breakdown of Results by Gender and Age
- What We Can Learn
- Study Methodology
Data Results Licensing
You are free to reference the findings and data from this study under the following conditions:
- Proper attribution in the form of a link to this study page with mention of Singles Reports as the source of the information.
- If used in video, proper attribution during the video in the form of a mention of Singles Reports as the source of the information, as well as a link to this study page from within the video description or supporting article.
For additional information or more data points, please reach out to [email protected].
Overall Results – Are Politics Important to You When Selecting a Romantic Partner?
The overall results of this study did provide quite an interesting insight into the relationship between politics and dating (and it gets more interesting later when we break things down by demographics). Overall, about one in four people in our study stated that politics were ‘Very important’ when it came to selecting their romantic partners. The remaining people were nearly an even split between the matter being ‘Somewhat important’ or ‘Not important’.
| Respondents | Very Important | Somewhat Important | Not Important |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Demographics | 25.20% | 37.70% | 37.10% |
Breakdown of Results by Gender
Men are more likely than women to say that politics is very important when selecting a romantic partner.
- Only 1 in 5 women say that politics are ‘Very important’ when selecting a romantic partner. For men, it’s nearly 1 in 3.
- Men and women are nearly identical when it comes to whether or not politics are of at least some importance (combining ‘Somewhat’ and ‘Very’).
As we start to dig deeper into the data, our first stop is the breakdown of results based on gender between men and women. When it comes to those who say politics are not important at all when selecting a romantic partner, the numbers are nearly identical between men and women.
Where we start to see a few differences is in the degree of importance among the remaining about 68% of people. For the men, the remaining study participants were nearly evenly split between ‘Very important’ (30.31%) and ‘Somewhat important’ (32.68%). With the women, though, there was a much higher response rate when it came to those who said it was somewhat important (42.80%) as opposed to being very important (20.00%.
So, the bottom line is that for any degree of importance between men and women, it’s about an even split. But when you look for the group that has more people saying it’s very important to them as opposed to somewhat important, the lead goes to the men.
| Respondents | Very Important | Somewhat Important | Not Important |
|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 30.31% | 32.68% | 37.01% |
| Female | 20.00% | 42.80% | 37.20% |
What We Think
We found it really interesting that the split between at least some level of importance versus none at all was almost identical across the two genders. It would lead us to believe that gender might not be a great indicator of how important politics are to someone searching for love. However, when you start to dig into the levels of importance, you see that the value of gender as an indicator comes right back into the limelight of importance.
Why do we think men are more likely to say that politics are very important when selecting a romantic partner? Currently, we don’t have any solid theories on that.
Breakdown of Results by Age
Respondents 35-44 were the most likely to say that politics was of at least some level of importance when selecting a romantic partner, but were also the least likely to say that it was ‘Very important’.
- The 25-34 year old age bracket had the highest percentage of respondents who said politics was very important when selecting a romantic partner (28.35%). However, the age bracket was also the lowest when it came to responding at least some degree of importance (59.84%).
- No age bracket responded ‘Very important’ more than they responded either ‘Somewhat important’ or ‘Not important’.
As we’ve seen many of times across all of our dating data studies, the existence of linear trends between age brackets here were fairly non-existent. However, what we do see (and have seen before) are alternating percentages between brackets. For example, for respondents who answered ‘Very Important’, we see an increase from 18-24 to 25-34, followed by a decrease from 25-34 to 35-44, followed by an increase from 35-44 to 45-54. We see this trend for all answer choices (although, some start with a decrease instead of an increase).
| Respondents | Very Important | Somewhat Important | Not Important |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18-24 | 26.98% | 36.51% | 36.51% |
| 25-34 | 28.35% | 31.50% | 40.16% |
| 35-44 | 20.63% | 47.62% | 31.75% |
| 45-54 | 24.80% | 35.20% | 40.00% |
What We Think
Breaking down these results and pulling out potential theories as to why can be challenging, especially when you don’t see any linear trends between the age brackets. It’s possible to start theorizing about life stages as they relate to this data, though, they would just be theories.
For example, we see the second highest level of some level of importance in the 18-24 year old group. This could be influenced by users who are in college—places where politics may be discussed more openly. However, does open discussion correlate to it being a more or less important factor when selecting a romantic partner? This one example can show the challenges of trying to draw too many conclusions without further study.
Breakdown of Results by Gender and Age
Men aged 35-44 were the most likely to say that politics was of at least some level of importance when selecting a romantic partner. Conversely, men aged 25-34 were the least likely to say that it was of at least some level of importance out of all the groups studied.
- Women aged 35-44 were the least likely to say that politics were ‘Very important’ when selecting a romantic partner (12.70%).
- From the 18-24 bracket through the 35-44 bracket, the percentage of women stating politics were of at least somewhat importance when selecting a romantic partner gradually increased.
- Men saw a significant rise in respondents answering at least some level of importance from the 25-34 age bracket to the 35-44 age bracket — 56.92% up to 71.43%.
| Age | Gender | Very Important | Somewhat Important | Not Important |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18-24 | Male | 36.51% | 30.16% | 33.33% |
| 18-24 | Female | 17.46% | 42.86% | 39.68% |
| 25-34 | Male | 26.15% | 30.77% | 43.08% |
| 25-34 | Female | 30.65% | 32.26% | 37.10% |
| 35-44 | Male | 28.57% | 42.86% | 28.57% |
| 35-44 | Female | 12.70% | 52.38% | 34.92% |
| 45-54 | Male | 30.16% | 26.98% | 42.86% |
| 45-54 | Female | 19.35% | 43.55% | 37.10% |
What We Can Learn
As with any of our data studies, we always want to try and put learning front and center. With many of our readers being singles looking to have success dating, we wanted to include a few takeaway tips from the data.
- Don’t ignore talking about politics. — With nearly two-thirds of respondents saying politics is important, it’s probably safe to say it’s a significant factor in the selection process. And while the study doesn’t show whether or not this is a good indicator of future relationship success, it certainly carries weight with singles. Be open to discussing your views on politics with potential matches because the statistics show there’s a good chance it’s important to them.
- The term politics means different things to different people. — While we didn’t look into this with the data, we know anecdotally that the term politics can mean a lot of different things. For some singles, it may mean whether you play for the red team (Republicans) or the Blue Team (Democrats). However, for others, it may just revolve around one key issue that’s important to them. For that reason, don’t automatically discount someone just because you have a different little letter after your name. Additionally, healthy discourse and relationships can and do happen between people from different sides of the political aisle.
- Keep in mind that ‘Somewhat important’ doesn’t necessarily mean a deal breaker. — We would guess that for the one in four who said politics is very important, disparities are probably a deal breaker. However, for the other 75% of respondents, it might not be. It’s certainly not for the 37% who say it’s not important and we’d imagine it’s a mixed bag for the remaining group who said it’s somewhat important. The takeaway here is not to think it’s so cut and dry, regardless of where people fall on this study.
- Nothing was 100%. — When it comes to finding that special someone, it’s important to remember the word is some-ONE. As long as the person you match with and are getting to know is cool with where you stand on politics and vice versa, none of this data matters at all to you.
Study Methodology
Our research team surveyed 500 respondents who stated they had used at least one online dating application in the past year. Respondents were asked, “Are Politics Important to You When Selecting a Romantic Partner?” The single-option answer choices were ‘Very important’, ‘Somewhat important’, or ‘Not important’.
Additional Overview Details
- 500 participants
- Aged 18-54, equally divided across four age brackets
- Respondents must live in the United States
- Respondents must have used at least (1) online dating app in the last (12) months
- Equal number of males and females in each age bracket
- All questions single-answer multiple-choice
Future Study Considerations
For future studies, we’d love to take a deeper look into the results broken down by what political party the respondents identify with. Additionally, we’d like to develop some questions for respondents to indicate their level of involvement in politics to use to parse the data further. We’d also like to look more into the definition of romantic partners as they relate to respondents. For example, do respondents care more if it’s a potential long-term dating candidate versus something casual?
Our team has plans to run this study regularly with the hopes of developing trend lines in changes and look for correlation to world events or things like election years.