Both liberals and conservatives look for a date who are like minded, a new study has suggested.
University of Miami political scientist, Casey Klofstad, and her research team randomly sampled 2,944 profiles from a popular Internet dating site, and examined the dating preference of users who identified as either liberal of conservative.
The data allowed them to compare the way each dater described themselves on a number of dimensions, including race and ethnicity, religion, and the desire to have children, to the characteristics of their ideal date.
Overall, regardless of ideology, daters want a partner that shares their characteristics.
Klofstad said that the tendency to seek out partners that are like us may contribute to the rise in political divide between liberals and conservatives.
The study has been published in Political Behavior.
