People Who Admit To Having This Hobby Are Probably Gonna Break Your Heart, Says Survey
MAYA LAB | Shutterstock According to a new survey, people who admit to a specific hobby are more likely to break hearts by cheating or ghosting. Some hobbies, on the surface, sound completely harmless. Unfortunately, that's not always the case.
It's rare to actually hear someone's favorite hobby and immediately deem it a red flag. In fact, hobbies usually make someone come across as being a lot more interesting and fun. However, a recent survey found that people who seemingly enjoy a common, popular pastime may actually be bad news. Don't want to have your heart broken? Definitely ask your next date if he's into sports.
People who say watching football is their favorite hobby are probably gonna break your heart.
A survey from football ticket marketplace LiveFootballTickets found that the most passionate sports fans are usually the most likely to cheat on their partners, ghost dates, and even judge potential matches based on the teams they support. Georgina Vaas, a relationship expert and therapist, analyzed the survey data for LiveFootball Tickets and found that respondents who claimed that football was their favorite hobby were a bit of a red flag.
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From the survey's findings, adults aged 45-54, the ages of the most devoted NFL fans, were also the most likely to cheat, with over a quarter (27%) admitting to infidelity. Sports loyalty also seems to be a dealbreaker, with 1 in 6 Americans (15%) admitting they've rejected someone based solely on the sport listed on their dating profile. NFL fans are also the most likely to ghost their dates!
Vaas described ghosting as being the 'worst' part of dating for many people.
"Ghosting is the worst; it creates a lot of emotional pain without closure for the person to move on. The uncertainty creates an emotional limbo, and you wonder if you were actually rejected or if it was something unrelated that occurred. It also prolongs the heartbreak and impedes the person being ghosted from recovering psychologically, because they tend to spend more time trying to piece together what happened," Vaas said.
A study from 2019 found that respondents had ghosted almost 30% of the people they had dated, and had been ghosted by 25% of dates themselves. In addition, roughly 75% of respondents said they believed that ghosting was an inappropriate way to end a relationship. That's usually the problem people have with dating apps in the first place: the fact that ghosting is considered the norm.
Many young people have given up on dating altogether.
Dating, as it is, feels more like a minefield than a fun activity. A study from Forbes Health explored dating app burnout, finding that 79% of Gen Z have experienced exhaustion from online dating. An estimated 80% of women reported feeling some level of burnout, whereas for men it was slightly lower at 74%. But seriously, those numbers are all around high.
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When asked about the source of their burnout, 40% of respondents agreed that the inability to find a good connection on the apps was the biggest factor in their exhaustion. The next most common reasons were feeling disappointed or rejected by someone they met on a dating app.
The last thing people should be worried about is whether their football-loving date will cheat or ghost them. They are already feeling fed up with the modern dating scene.
However, that also doesn't mean that liking sports automatically makes someone a bad partner. It's not hobbies that are the ones breaking people's hearts, but the patterns of people who seemingly enjoy the same pastime.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
