28 9 / 2012
Agreement on Political Issues Increases Relative to Age
Last week, CNN reported on couples with political differences, citing vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and his wife Janna. During election season, more than any other time, politics finds its way into dinner conversations and small talk. But what happens when differences in political perspectives make their way into a romantic relationship?
To find out more about the frequency of differing political perspectives within relationships, we asked our users, “Do you and your partner agree on political issues?” and here are the responses.
When arranged by gender and relationship status, agreeing on political issues was more frequent for both men and women who were in more serious relationships and those who were dating had the lowest percentage of agreement.
However, those who were dating had the highest percentage of indifference or not talking about political issues at all. There are a few ways to read this information- at times in the dating phase of a relationship, serious issues are not addressed in light of the honeymoon period, or seem less serious or potentially impactful. Therefore, “not caring” could be a result of rose-colored love glasses, not actually complete indifference. Additionally, those who specified that they avoided political conversations because they knew they did not agree with their partner were included in “do not agree” rather than “don’t talk about it.”
When arranged by gender and age, agreement for women clearly increases with age while disagreement decreases. Notably, almost half of women and a third of men under the age of 32 didn’t care or didn’t talk about politics with their partner. However over the age of 33, we see a sharp decrease to under 20% of women reporting indifference to political issues.
When disagreeing on political issues, many couples avoided political conversations altogether. 55% of women and 38% of men would rather just move on to another subject. Hot button issues included women’s reproductive rights and same-sex marriage.
Other strategies for disagreements around political issues included:
- Withholding sex
- Serious debate
- Agreeing to disagree
And probably our favorite response:
We always agree on our political issues; unless I feel a bit of chaos coming on; then we have to get butt nekett n wrassle! Lol jk
For more fun with your partner, and insight into a community of couples, check out theicebreak.com. Or, you can get our app to start connecting with your partner in a whole new way.
