Daters Are Hot for Climate Change Advocates

Daters Are Hot for Climate Change Advocates was originally published in The OkCupid Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Daters on OkCupid have long been vocal about finding matches who share their beliefs and values, particularly when it comes to the causes they care about. In 2020, we found that people on OkCupid were passionate about matching with fellow daters who were registered to vote, and support the BLM movement. And so far in 2021, our data shows that OkCupid daters are hot for climate change advocates. In fact, nine in 10 daters on OkCupid say it is important to them that their match cares about the environment. So to help our users find the perfect, environmentally-conscious match, we’ve released our first-ever global Climate Change Advocate Profile Badge and Stack.

For all of Earth Month, every person on OkCupid who responds ‘Yes’ to the OkCupid question ‘Do you want to support the environment by adding a Climate Change Advocate badge to your profile?’ will get the Climate Change Advocate badge automatically added to their profile. And better yet, they will be featured in the Climate Change Stack so fellow earth-lovers can easily find them and match over their shared care for the planet. Best yet? For every person who adds the badge to their profile, we’re donating $1 to EARTHDAY.ORG, an amazing global organization growing out of the first Earth Day in 1970 that’s the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement.*

Since the Climate Change Advocate badge became available, hundreds of thousands of OkCupid daters have added it to their profiles.

*Up to $25,000.

Daters Are Hotter for Climate Change Advocates Than Ever Before

Over the past four years, there’s been an over 450% increase in mentions of climate change and the environment on OkCupid profiles, and we anticipate that trend will continue as daters are becoming increasingly adamant about signaling to others what’s important to them. And these days, it’s definitely climate change. After all, the environment is one of the most popular question topics we have, with our questions on climate change and the environment garnering 7.5M responses worldwide.

Eighty-three percent of people on OkCupid are concerned about climate change, and so it’s not surprising that only 7% of OkCupid daters say they ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ recycle. Even their do-good-ing does not go to waste; people on OkCupid who are concerned about climate change get 37% more likes and 11% more matches than those who are not. We anticipate that the introduction of our Climate Change Advocate Badge and Stack will further increase likes and matches for these daters, potentially up to 4x.

Men and Women Are More Aligned about Climate Change Than Any Other Issue

Our data often reveals steep divides between men and women’s views on a variety of topics, but climate change is one where men and women are closely aligned. Women get the gold green star when it comes to caring about the planet, but men are not far behind, with 89% of women and 83% of men responding ‘Yes’ to ‘Is it important that your match cares about the environment?’ This 6% divide is one of the closest between the genders of any OkCupid questions, whether the topic is light or more serious. For example, when it comes to gun control reform, women are 18% more likely than men to believe the US needs stricter laws and there’s a 15% difference between genders on willingness to date someone who doesn’t support gender equality, with women being significantly less likely. Paying extra for guacamole is even more divisive than caring about climate change, as women are 8% more likely to do so.

What It Means When Your Date is a Climate Change Advocate

OkCupid daters want to know how someone feels about climate change before they match, and our Climate Change Advocate Badge and Stack means that they can. But we found that having the Climate Change Advocate Badge on your profile reveals more than just your respect for the planet. Our OkCupid data reveals that, compared to those who aren’t, daters who are concerned about climate change are:

• 26% more likely to want to get the Covid vaccine
• 12% more likely to think a sense of humor in a match is very important
• 14% more likely to pay extra for guac
• 400% more likely to consider themselves a feminist

Great Environmentally-Friendly, Socially-Distanced Date Ideas

So now it’s time to add the Climate Change Advocate badge to your profile (click here) and match with someone who cares about the same things you do! Once you’ve found your match, here are some great date ideas from EARTHDAY.ORG that you can enjoy together:

• Make a plant-based meal together! Vegetarian meals are good for the earth and good for you, too. Here are some climate-friendly recipes from EARTHDAY.ORG.
• Support EARTHDAY.ORG’S Great Global Cleanup. Enjoy an outdoor date that you can both feel good about.
• Prefer a virtual date? Pour a glass of wine and both tune into one of EARTHDAY.ORG’s live digital events.
• A little competition makes for a lively date; test who has superior knowledge on regenerative agriculture with EARTHDAY.ORG’s quiz.

Download OkCupid to find someone who cares about you AND the planet.

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