As politics increasingly shapes modern relationships, dating apps have adapted by offering features that allow users to match based on political alignment.
This shift has become even more pronounced as election season approaches, with apps like Tinder, OkCupid, and The Right Stuff leading the charge in catering to politically conscious daters.
Tinder's Take Action Center: Politics Meets Dating
Tinder introduced its "Take Action Center" ahead of the election, offering users profile stickers to express their political stance and voting intentions.
Stickers like "Hot people vote (I'm voting)" and "Voting for reproductive rights" allow daters to share their political beliefs upfront, while partnerships with organizations like Vote.org provide essential election-related information such as polling locations and registration deadlines.
This most popular sticker focuses on reproductive rights and explains how abortion has still managed to become an exceptionally contentious issue in the election to come, with it appearing on ballots in ten states. Tinder is taking a step that helps inform its users about what is at stake as it also encourages political engagement.
OkCupid's Matching Questions: The Alignment of Political Beliefs
OkCupid took a different tack in this regard by introducing 12 new matching questions that promise to better align users based on their voting behavior. Questions run the gamut, from "Are you voting in the 2024 presidential election?" to "Is it a deal breaker if your date votes for a different candidate?
From here, this is a different path that Tinder follows—from the app's previous focus on specific political issues, such as climate change, to more generalized political values.
OkCupid's users tend to lean more liberal, but the app has noted that 44% of its users identify outside traditional political categories, opting for the label "other" when discussing their beliefs.
OkCupid launched an "I'm Pro-Choice" badge, introduced in 2021, that showed how the app was on the side of progressives on a few issues.
Of such questions, according to OkCupid Director of Brand Marketing Michael Kaye, this is important since it reflects how people converse with acquaintances and family members in real life but now do so with dating partners.
Political Deal Breakers: Shaping Relationships
For many, political beliefs have become a non-negotiable aspect of dating. In an interview with CNN, Ashley Houghton, a 29-year-old dater from California, says she brings up politics early in her conversations with potential partners.
"My opening line is, 'What do you think about these issues?'," she said.
Houghton believes that shared political values are essential to determine whether the conversation is worth continuing.
This sentiment has been amplified since the pandemic, where health mandates, vaccines, and protests surrounding George Floyd's death increased political discussions in dating.
Lisa Wade, a sociology professor at Tulane University, notes that politics have become integral to young daters' relationships, with many prioritizing shared values even for casual hookups.
Conservative Dating: The Right Stuff
On the conservative side, The Right Stuff, launched in 2022, caters to politically aligned users. While featuring prompts like "Favorite liberal lie" and "January 6 was...", the app's creators argue it's not overtly political, but rather, "politics is almost out of the way."
With 70,000 active users, The Right Stuff recognizes that political alignment is an essential factor for its users, especially as the election nears.
Director of Marketing, Raquel Debono, acknowledges that while this focus highlights the growing political divide, it also reflects the reality of modern dating: politics now play a central role in people's identities.
Dating People With the Same Political Views
With apps increasingly embracing political matching, it's clear that shared values have become central to modern dating. We know that election season is coming and these dating platforms will continue to provide users with the tools to explore all kinds of "ships" based on political alignment.
