About half of dating site users say they check the COVID-19 vaccination status and political affiliation of potential matches, according to a new Pew Research Center poll.
SO WHAT
Political partisanship has become so pervasive it dictates who Americans will swipe right or left on.
WHAT HAPPENED
The Pew survey, published Monday, found that among American adults who have used a dating site or app in the past year, seeing vaccination status (47%) and political affiliation (53%) on profiles they look at is important to them.
Democrats are much more discriminating than Republicans when it comes to these characteristics, both of which are highly partisan, per Pew:
- Did you get the jab?: 64% of Democrats care versus 14% of Republicans.
- What’s your political party?: 58% of Democrats care versus 40% of Republicans.
The White House fueled the dating divide last year when it pushed apps like Hinge, Tinder, Match, Bumble and OKCupid to introduce vaccination badges and other perks for people who got their coronavirus shots.
IS AMERICA BREAKING UP?
In an increasingly polarized America, dating sites aren’t the only realm of romantic coupling that has been split along party lines.
- American Enterprise Institute: Large majorities of U.S. adults say it’s difficult if not impossible to date someone with differing views on abortion (68%), gun control (64%), LGBT rights (62%), immigration (60%) and affirmative action (60%).
- Women and Democrats are the groups that care most about having the same political views as their romantic partner.
- Institute for Family Studies: 3.6% of U.S. marriages are between Republicans and Democrats, down from 4.5% just three years earlier.
- Economist/YouGov: 38% of Americans from both parties are upset at the idea of their child marrying across the partisan divide, with Democrats slightly more likely to be “very upset.”
THE LAST WORD
Political analyst Yuval Levin has argued that America’s “culture wars” have broken down the barriers that once separated different spheres of national life — such as politics and romance —and that those barriers need to be rebuilt.
- “That would mean not only putting up with people who vote differently than we do but also finding ways to admire them and learn from them — even if not about how to vote,” Levin wrote in April.
- “It would mean recognizing the humanity of our neighbors, seeing that expertise in one arena does not imply authority in another and grasping that setting bounds on the reach of our cultural combat is not just a pragmatic concession to civility but also a broader path to the fullest truth about the human person.”