Here's how climate can make you a hot date
Dating website finds that concern about global warming makes you more attractive
(A native of England, Matthew Diebel is a veteran journalist who has worked at NBC News, Time, USA Today and News Corp., among other organizations. Having spent his childhood next to one of the world's fastest bodies of water, he is particularly interested in tidal energy.)
Did you ever go on a hot date that suddenly went cold? Well, it could have been that you did not express enough concern about global warming.
That’s the finding of popular dating website OKCupid (MTCH), which surveyed about 250,000 users worldwide and found that 90% of would-be lovebirds said that it’s “important” for their match to care about the environment, topping other potential dealbreaker issues like gender equality and gun control.
The dater data came from the signing-up process, where budding boyfriends and possible galpals are asked a series of questions designed to see if they are compatible with other potential paramours.
And, guys, you might want to get your environmental act together — women were 7% more likely than men to care about the planet’s health, according to the data.
As for a more specific question, “Are you concerned about climate change?,” 81% of daters said they were worried, with, again, 7% of women more likely than men to express unease.
“We have just seen over time, climate change being more and more this huge topic for our millennials daters especially,” Jane Reynolds, director of product marketing at OKCupid, told The Hill.
As for where environmental concern is greatest, 93% of daters said yes in San Francisco, with 86% in New York City and San Diego, 85% in Los Angeles and 84% in Washington, D.C. In Miami, however, the affirmative response was only 74% — despite the fact that is one of the cities most likely to be severely affected by global warming.
“Over the past four years, there’s been an over 450% increase in mentions of climate change and the environment on OkCupid profiles,” the company reported on its blog, which also noted that “people … who are concerned about climate change get 37% more likes and 11% more matches than those who are not.”
When it comes to love, it pays to be green.