Justin Garcia

So it's still in the top 10.

Physical attraction is still quite important.

But it seems less so.

And that's true for both men and women.

It's true of different demographics, different ages, races, religions, parts of the country.

So I think that's also telling about how people are prioritizing what they're looking for.

And I actually think one thing we saw in the data is after the pandemic,

People were changing what they were honing in on.

So it's not to say that attraction isn't still important.

And we have to remember this is self-rating.

So it could be that you actually are making a lot of decisions based on attraction, particularly if you're on an app and you're looking at just pictures.

But when you really hone in on what you when you're asked what you're thinking about, it doesn't seem as important.

Yeah, I love that you bring this up.

So we did a study almost a decade ago now, I'm laughing, thinking that it was that long ago, on exactly this, on relationship deal breakers and traits that people avoid in potential mates.

And what was interesting about that is that we found, and I did this study with this group of psychologists and anthropologists, and we found that people, although we know that there are traits that we hone in on, the so-called deal makers, these are the things you really want in a partner.

We also found that there were these deal breakers, these traits that people were actively avoiding.

And it seemed like there's somewhat separate psychological mechanisms at play.

So one, you're chasing the things you desire, but then you have the things you avoid.

And how we calibrate that psychology is there are certain things that quickly turn us off.

And in fact, in some recent studies, sometimes we'll hear people talk about they got the ick on a dating, for instance, if they're dating someone, or even in a long-term relationship.