If you are religious you are facing an uphill battle when online dating. Ouch.
A study conducted into online dating and the ‘selection’ process, (i.e when you sift through profiles and send those cheeky winks) indicated that non-religious participants perceived people, who, like them were not religious, had higher levels of openness and were more appealing as romantic partners than those who stated they were religious.
In other words God’s just aren’t sexy!
What it really a shows though, is that stereotypes are alive and kicking.
The study, published in the Journal Social Psychological and Personality Science highlights it’s not actually a stereotype against all religious people per se. Rather there is a stereotype that religious people are closed minded and uptight.
Seriously? In 2015 do we really think that everyone who is religious is stuck up, narrow minded and set in their ways? I know a fair share of religious people who I didn’t even know practised a religion when I met them. Mainly because they didn’t rock up wearing a giant cross and preaching the bible. They also didn’t try to ‘convert’ me. Nor are they in any way uptight. To be honest, I don’t personally care if someone practises a religion or not. I’m not religious, but I’m happy for them to share their views with me and I’m also happy to respect that it’s their view and one that we likely don’t share.
The point to remember here though, is that the study wasn’t about compatibility and whether someone practising a religion is a good ‘match’ for someone who doesn’t. It’s about the attitude that people who believe in, and follow, a religion are less desirable as a partner that those who don’t.
Those who put they are religious on their dating profiles, even if it is ‘semi-practising’ got far less interaction from other members on the dating site. This is also something I see mirrored at Mutual Attraction.
So, my question to you lovely is:
Would you email that cute guy/girl online if it said in their profile they were religious?
Share your thoughts below 🙂
People do stereotype online. I’m Catholic, I don’t massively practise it but it is important to me so I put it on my match profile and I can’t count the number of times I’ve had men email asking if i’m a god nut and a bible basher. Why bother emailing me if you think that? Ignorant. xx Annalisa xx