Over the past few years, I’ve heard three particular myths circulating around the Internet about politics and dating, and I wanted to understand to what degree (if any) they were true.
One is the myth that a large segment of men are not interested in dating liberal or leftist women, and because more women are left-wing than men, they can’t find a date at all. Implied in this myth is that the liberal women are interested in dating centrist or conservative men, but the interest is not mutual. I mean, just imagine—what if she asks for your pronouns in the middle of dirty talk? What if you call her “good girl” and she yells at you for not saying “good person?” What if she has blue hair?
Second, the exact opposite theory: yes, more women are liberal than men, but they refuse to date conservative, or even centrist men. The idea here is that women will pepper men with a variety of tests before considering a date to make sure they have the right politics (which, in some women’s cases, could be limited to far-left, not liberal, politics) before engaging further.
And third, a weird combination of the two: liberal women want men with liberal politics but find them insufficiently masculine, and are therefore stuck dating the “right” guys while secretly lusting after Alpha Chud.
I had a feeling that “liberal woman refuses to date conservative men” was more common than “conservative man refuses to date liberal women” but wanted to be sure. Moreover, what about those further to the left of liberals? If you’re a socialist, would you date a liberal? What about a centrist? And who do the centrists want to date? Which political affiliations are people likely to regret dating?
Luckily, I was able to run a study to answer these questions!
