Hardcore and single, patterns of dividing political tendencies and singlehood.

• In Event: Political Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Political Attitudes (Table 17)

Abstract

With the consequences of political polarisation among young adults yet to be understood, this paper investigates if likelihood of being single relates to party preference. As young men increasingly prefer parties to the right, and young women parties to the left, the pool of potential heterosexual partners that share political preferences is shrinking. Therefore, this paper asks whether greater gender differences in party preference are related to a higher likelihood of single status for those in the majority and a lower likelihood for those in the minority. The paper also considers whether strength in party preference further alters the likelihood of being single, and if there is any ideological variation in this effect. Analysis is carried out using logistic regression on Swedish self-report data comprising 5145 young adults collected between 2019 and 2023. Results demonstrates heterogenous effects for men and women. Where women are a minority preferring a specific party, they have a significantly lower likelihood of being single as compared to others. However, the results for men are inconclusive, showing only a lower likelihood of being single for those who prefer the party where they are the greatest minority, but also the next greatest majority, suggesting that ideology might be at play. Finally, the strength of preference showed few significant results, but some were contradictory. This implies that the polarised environment has yet to create difficulties for those with the highest tendencies of being single, and thus, we should be careful of asserting polarisation as a major reason for low partnership formation in society.

Author

• Jasper Darin, Stockholm University