Relationships demand compromise. But what about political ideology? When it comes to Democrats and Republicans, can love conquer all?

Given the polarized political climate, Lucy Morisse-Corsetti, A27, a student member of Professor Brian Schaffner’s Tufts Public Opinion Lab, wanted to find out what the partisan divide means for romance. Over the past four years, 10% more young men have identified as Republicans; young women are becoming more liberal. Finding that special someone is already tough enough: If you’re looking for someone of the opposite sex, is your dating pool shrinking as ideologies become more extreme?

Morisse-Corsetti, an economics and politics major, surveyed roughly 1,000 heterosexual people through the Tufts 2024 Public Opinion Lab National Poll during election season. Participants selected which of 22 traits were most important to them in a relationship. The traits fell into three categories: emotion (love, passion, contentment), values (marriage, religion, volunteerism), and life organization (household labor, financial stability, physical security, emotional maturity).

Morisse-Corsetti presumed that if liberals prized different traits than conservatives, they might be romantically incompatible. Before you swipe right, here are her takeaways.

Conservative women care more about values traits than liberal respondents.

Very liberal men didn’t select values-based traits at all, and only 6% of very liberal women selected them.  But conservative women selected values-based traits 32% of the time.

Morisse-Corsetti was surprised that so many women emphasized values in relationships. “I assumed that female respondents would have more concerns about emotional or life organizational traits, because those are what our stereotypes perpetuate about women and relationships,” Morisse-Corsetti says.

But this does make sense, she says, as religion, marriage, and desire for children all correlate historically with conservative thinking.

Life-organization traits are most highly sought after by ideologically extreme men.

“Very conservative or liberal men are possibly thinking more about: ‘What would I want my life to look like in terms of my financial state? What do I want my division of household labor to look like?” she says.

“The ideological extremes might see a specific image that they want their partner to fulfill. Finding a partner who fulfills that image of housewife or ‘tradwife’ especially is of higher value to ultra-conservative men,” she says.

 Meanwhile, moderate men are more ambivalent about life-organization traits, which might indicate acceptance of the status quo. In the United States, Morisse-Corsetti points out, domestic chores are largely placed on women, with 59% of women saying they do more household chores than their spouse or partner. “Therefore, caring about the various life organization traits might not be a priority for men, because the status quo serves them,” she says—it’s not something that needs to be negotiated.

Women across the political spectrum value life-organization traits. 

This crosses party lines, perhaps because women of all ideologies recognize that emotional labor and household responsibilities historically fall more often on them. 

“This an interesting dichotomy; women’s value of life organization exists separate from their partisanship,” Morisse-Corsetti says. “Women might be more concerned with ensuring they’re able to continue their careers after marriage or that they will not be solely responsible for household chores.”

Desire for emotional contentment crosses party lines.

Love conquers all? Maybe. No matter what your affiliation, the heart rules the day.

“Emotional traits still came out on top every single time for every single ideological group, and they don’t have a clear partisan tilt in the way the other traits did. At the end of the day, a vast majority of people value contentment, love, and passion, and receiving or giving care,” she says.

But before you commit to a second date, remember: Political ideologies seem to go hand in hand with romantic compatibility. 

“Seventy-seven percent of current married and cohabitating partners in the U.S. are with someone of the same political party. We gravitate toward like-minded people, who are interested in the same things, and who hold the same values,” Morisse-Corsetti says.

Proving that, in some cases, opposites don’t really attract.