Love or politics? Political views regarding the war in Ukraine in an online dating experiment

Beloborodova, Anna (2023): Love or politics? Political views regarding the war in Ukraine in an online dating experiment.

Abstract

How polarized is Russian society regarding the war in Ukraine? Political views have an impact on various behaviors, including relationship formation. In this paper I study the extent of polarization in the Russian society regrading the war in Ukraine by conducting a field experiment on a large Russian dating site and collecting data on more than 3,000 profile evaluations. The findings reveal sizable penalties for those who express pro-war or anti-war positions on their dating profiles, suggesting considerable levels of polarization in the Russian society regarding the war. Age of the online dating site users is the most divisive factor, as younger individuals are less likely to approach pro-war profiles but not anti-war profiles, while older individuals are less likely to respond positively to profiles indicating anti-war views but not pro-war views.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: affective polarization; relationship formation; assortative mating; field experiment; war in Ukraine
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C93 - Field Experiments; D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J12 - Marriage ; Marital Dissolution ; Family Structure ; Domestic Abuse

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