Love

A recent study by OkCupid has found that above all else, singles want to know where people stand politically, and more specifically, if their matches’ views align with their own.

According to OkCupid's blog post, 6 in 10 women around the world want their partners to share their political views. In the U.S. which has become more divided since Trump took office, that number climbs as high as 70 percent. More than half of Gen Z men and women want to share the same political views, as do 63 percent of Millennials and 64 percent of Gen X daters. Among LGBTQ daters, that number goes up to a whopping 80 percent.

According to OkCupid, today’s singles are more interested in where someone stands on issues like climate change or reproductive rights, rather than something benign like where they last went on vacation. And if their politics don’t match, it can be a dealbreaker.

Ahead of Valentine’s Day, Tinder has partnered with food brand Knorr to encourage users to highlight cooking skills on their Tinder profiles. A whopping 93 percent of Gen Z Tinder users find a date’s ability to cook attractive.

According to Design Rush, the new campaign encourages Tinder users to “unlock their green flag” by touting their ability to cook in profiles and hopefully sparking conversation. Knorr is also helping Tinder users get inspired by offering recipes and cooking tips on TikTok and Instagram leading up to Valentine’s Day under the campaign hashtag #UnlockYourGreenFlag.

According to the joint press release, Knorr and Tinder conducted a study of users to find that 63 percent are more likely to swipe right on someone with cooking listed as interest. And about 28 percent of singles said they won’t consider dating someone who can’t cook.

Image: Tinder

Tinder has debuted several new graphics and video spots to appeal to Gen Z daters in a new global ad campaign launched this week.

The campaign rolled out in time for “Dating Sunday,” or as some call it, the Superbowl of the dating app industry. The first Sunday of January is the busiest day for dating app traffic and companies like Tinder expect this year to be no different.

According to AdWeek, Tinder has reported the number of messages sent across the app surges by 22 percent on Dating Sunday, and likes increase by 18 percent. Dating app’s busiest season extends from Dating Sunday through Valentine’s Day, when people are making New Year’s resolutions to find love.

Image: eharmony

eHarmony has released the dating trends it expects to see in 2024, based on its extensive annual survey of users, including new perspectives on what it means to date someone who’s “out of your league.”

The study also reveals changing attitudes about asking dates how many people they’ve slept with, and shares the biggest love life regrets of users and how they can impact dating habits going into the new year.

According to eHarmony’s press release (local copy), different generations have different perspectives on what “out of your league” means. Among Gen Z daters, 68 percent define it in terms of physical attractiveness, 43 percent professional success, and 42 percent financial stability. However, when it comes to what they look for and value in a partner, the top quality is emotional intelligence (28%) followed by humor (23%) and intelligence (16%).

Image: TInder

Dating app Tinder has released its new dating trends report for 2023, and one of the main findings of the Year in Swipe point to singles wanting a range of dating experiences, rather than being so focused on finding “the one.”

In other words, more singles were interested in their own dating journeys rather than the destination, with Tinder noting that there was a 5.5 times increase in users adding statements in their bios like: “Everything I do is for the plot.” NATO dating was also a big phrase – “not being attached to an outcome.”

Singles also said they embraced “main character energy” in 2023, alluding to stories they can share about their dating lives with their friends (and followers on social media). They said they looked at the dating process as a way of building a roster of new experiences and memories (to add to their personal stories), which took the pressure off outcomes. It also left room for “self-exploration through dating,” according to Match Group’s release.

Netflix dropped its first trailer for the new series The Ultimatum: Queer Love, which will premiere on the streaming service in May.

The trailer is a departure from the original Ultimatum series because all of the couples on the new dating reality show are LGBTQ+ for the first time. According to The Pink News, the new series promises to “showcase more stories of love, relationships and the ups and the downs of commitment” with “brutal honesty” as each couple hits a crossroads in their relationship.

Notably, as show creator Chris Coelen promised last year, this installment would feature “an all-queer cast made up of women and non-binary people.”