When looking for love online, politics matter

A new study on online dating finds that political affiliation rivals education levels as one of the most important factors in finding a suitable mate. Researchers from Stanford Graduate School of Business and Yale University analyzed thousands of interactions from an online dating website in the US, finding that men and women opt to pursue romantic connections with people from their own political party and with similar political beliefs. "We underestimate how much politics affects our daily lives," says study coauthor Neil Malhotra, Stanford Graduate School of Business associate professor. "After an election is over, we don't think about it, but in fact our political affiliations strongly affect other aspects of our lives, such as our romantic choices." Interestingly, the research finds that when two people with similar political beliefs pair up, their children are more likely to have more "extreme views." Additional research shows that children are more moderate if their parents have differing political viewpoints.