Democrats rarely have Republicans as romantic partners and vice versa, study finds

An analysis of data from multiple studies in the United States revealed that politically dissimilar couples are very rare. The share of couples where one partner supported the Democratic Party while the other supported the Republican Party was only 8%. Political dissimilarity with a romantic partner was most frequent among supporters of Independents, with around 44% of Independents having a partner who supported either the Democratic or Republican Party. The paper was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The two main political parties in the United States are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Democratic Party generally aligns with more liberal policies, while the Republican Party tends to support more conservative or right-leaning positions. Although both parties have strong popular support, studies indicate that political polarization has been increasing in recent years. In particular, feelings of dislike towards people with differing political views have become much more common.

Studies also indicate that people are less likely to be married to someone supporting a different political party compared to 50 years ago. Such cross-party marriages (i.e., marriages between individuals supporting different political parties) are more likely to end in divorce. In other words, political similarity between romantic couples has been increasing.

This increase in political similarity among couples has consequences not just for the couples themselves, but for society as a whole. When partners share identical or very similar political views, they and their children are less exposed to different perspectives, increasing the echo chamber effect. This, in turn, tends to amplify and reinforce existing beliefs, potentially increasing societal polarization.

Study author Amie M. Gordon and her colleagues sought to explore how frequent politically dissimilar romantic couples are in the United States, and to identify any factors associated with such political dissimilarity. They analyzed data from 4,584 adults (526 couples) collected from 11 separate datasets from studies conducted between 2020 and 2022.

Of these datasets, seven were collected using the online survey platform Prolific, two were community samples from the U.S. Midwest, one contained data from undergraduate students, and one included results from a survey administered through Forthright Access that approximated U.S. demographics. In total, 32% of participants were Republicans, 42% were Democrats, and 22% supported Independents. Additionally, 3% of respondents identified as supporting “Other” parties.

They also analyzed a set of daily diary data collected from 218 couples from the U.S. Midwest. These couples reported their data each night for 14 nights using an app. The average age of these participants was 34 years, and they were mainly Democrats (62%). There were very few Republicans among them (7%).

The results showed that romantic relationships between politically dissimilar individuals were very rare. Over 80% of both Democrats and Republicans had a partner who supported the same political party. When the partner did not support the same party, there were somewhat more Republicans with a partner supporting Independents than those whose partner was a Democrat. Among Democrats with a politically dissimilar partner, that partner was almost twice as likely to be a supporter of Independents rather than Republicans.

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Overall, around 6% of participating Democrats had a partner who was a Republican, while around 8% of participating Republicans had a partner who was a Democrat. Supporters of Independents were the most likely to be in politically dissimilar relationships, with only 59% of them having a partner who also supported Independents.

Further analysis revealed that people with politically similar partners tended to be more religious and to have friends and family who were also more politically similar to them compared to individuals with politically dissimilar partners. These individuals also tended to be more politically extreme, reported that politics were more important to them, and felt it was more important to share their political beliefs.

They were also more likely to be married or engaged, tended to be older, and were more prone to experiencing negative emotions. Individuals in a relationship with a politically dissimilar partner tended to rate their relationship quality as slightly lower on average compared to individuals with politically similar partners.

“Whether that is not wanting to date someone from the other side, or politics causing tension once in a romantic relationship, findings from our large sample of contemporary romantic relationships suggest that politics may be playing a role in romantic relationships, at least a little bit. And this appears to be true even for people who care less about politics, suggesting that the loud and persistent voices of the politically-engaged minority may have the potential to impact the relationships of many. If people increasingly view the two major political parties in America as differing in core values and beliefs, then the small effects we find in this paper could become magnified with time,” study authors concluded.

The study sheds light on the links between political views and romantic relationships. However, it should be noted that the results primarily reflect the current political situation in the United States, which might very well change over time.

The paper, “I love you but I hate your politics: The role of political dissimilarity in romantic relationships,” was authored by Amie M. Gordon, Maria Luciani, and Annika From.