Do bedroom eyes wear political glasses? The role of politics in human mate attraction

Most social science research portrays attitudes and behaviors as a product of one's environment or social upbringing. Recently, however, scholars have begun to expand upon this paradigm by showing that biological factors such as genes, which are passed from parents to offspring, can also help explain differences in political attitudes and behaviors. As a result, illuminating how spouses select one another is the first step toward understanding both the genetic and social transmission of political preferences from parents to offspring. Yet the question of whether individuals actively seek out mates who are more politically similar is unknown. To address this lacuna, data were gathered from Internet dating profiles. These data show that most individuals are reluctant to advertise politics when attempting to attract a mate. However, the correlates of political attitudes and behavior, such as education and civic engagement, do predict whether a person uses politics as a way to attract a mate. Thus, although spouses share such predilections more than almost any other trait, individuals do not appear to initially select potential dates along political lines. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.