Since OkCupid‘s inception in 2004, the website has become one of the leading dating sites in the world, creating matches and gathering data on people’s dating habits. OkCupid works differently than most other dating apps, in that it relies on questionnaires to determine matches instead of swipes.
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The company tells The Huffington Post that for the first time ever, users in cities like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles placed more value on compatible politics than great sex. This trend has doubled in women all over the country since 2016. “Without a doubt, the recent presidential election and current administration have driven young women in particular, but millennials of both genders, to say, ‘Swipe left if you support Trump,’ or ‘I don’t even want to see you as a match if you don’t vote,” says Melissa Hobley, chief marketing officer of OkCupid.
Before you use OkCupid, you must fill out a brief questionnaire that asks general questions about you, including your sexual and political preferences. The quiz is built with the input of experts and psychologists and it’s tinkered every once in a while to improve the odds of successful matches. It makes sense that in our current political climate, users are valuing their politics now more than ever.
According to the app’s stats, conservative men have been having more trouble dating, which in turn has lead to claims of discrimination and a rise of right wing dating apps. OkCupid is not concerned with those who accuse them of making it harder to find matches though: “This is so counter to what previous generations did, or what your own parents told you: ‘Don’t talk politics or religion until you’ve been dating a while,’” says Hobley. “Not only are people not waiting till the third or fourth date ― people are saying, ‘I don’t even want to see you as a potential match if you don’t vote.’”
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Millennials and Gen-Z members are valuing politics starting at a younger age, so this trend is unlikely to go away. Even though constant conversations about politics are draining, we could do worse than having a society that values the state of the world.
