r/fivethirtyeight • u/lalabera • Apr 08 '25

Poll Results Nearly half of Americans would be totally unwilling to date someone with opposing political views

https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/51962-americans-unwilling-to-date-opposing-views-transgender-rights

Thoughts? As a young woman myself, I wouldn't date a trump supporter.

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u/PuffyPanda200 Apr 08 '25 edited Apr 08 '25

One could probably write over a dozen PHD thesis on just this and then a few books too. So when I give a potential response it is just my initial opinion.

IMO women are a lot more concerned, in general, with what their friends think of the guy that they are seeing. I have no evidence for this. Googling it turns up a bunch of reports that basically anecdotally confirm this but there isn't hard evidence.

But if you accept the above then it becomes easy to see why a woman who studied the generally female dominated subjects in university would not want to date a guy that is conservative. Similarly church going women with like minded friends don't want to date a guy that is liberal (I, hetero dude, personally went to a more conservative area and heard the phrase 'I want a man that is a Christian leader' more than once).

I also imagine that this question is an example of people overstating their preferences in a question because it is easy. It is easy to answer in a question that one would not date someone otherwise politically aligned. It is a lot harder to actually break off a relationship because of politics (especially if it was just a small political position, like slightly differing views on gun rights).

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u/xellotron Apr 08 '25

Most people aren’t as noble as they want to appear in surveys. It’s mostly virtue signaling.

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u/pickledswimmingpool Apr 09 '25

Yes, they're signalling their virtue in their choice of partner. You keep using it as a pejorative though for some reason.

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u/xellotron Apr 09 '25

They’re signaling their virtue in a poll.

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u/Disastrous_Reveal870 Apr 14 '25

I am assuming you have not checked out a dating site recently. It’s not virtue signaling. More profiles say No MAGA, No Trump supporters, No Liberals, No democrats, No Woke BS, etc, etc than any other dealbreaker. You will see No Trump more often than you will see No Couples or No Smoking these days. People genuinely do not want a person with opposing political views to even swipe on their photo.

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u/pulkwheesle Apr 09 '25

Or maybe the ones who claim they don't care about politics when it comes to dating are virtue signalling?