A series of six studies published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin asked 5,541 single people what they thought were deal breakers when evaluating potential mates.
One of the studies asked specifically about deal breakers in short-term relationships versus long-term relationships. In long term relationships deal breakers were “anger issues” and feeling the other person is “untrustworthy.” Also sited as a turn-off in long-term potential mates was “when the other person is currently dating multiple partners,” which kind of ruins that “I feel special” feeling of a relationship, and makes people jealous — two reasons people site for not being able to to do the polyamory thing.
In short-term partners, deal breakers were “STD’s,” and “smells bad/has poor hygiene.” In the study called “What are the deal breakers?” being a slob was the #1 deal breaker. Here, in order of deal breaking importance is the dirty dozen of deal breakers, according to men and women:
Sloppy or unclean appearance
Men: 63 percent
Women: 71 percent
Lazy
Men: 60 percent
Women: 72 percent
Too needy
Men: 57 percent
Women: 69 percent
No sense of humor
Men: 50 percent
Women: 58 percent
Lives more than 3 hours away
Men: 51 percent
Women: 47 percent
Bad sex
Men: 44 percent
Women: 50 percent
Lacks self-confidence
Men: 33 percent
Women: 47 percent
Too much TV/videogames
Men: 25 percent
Women: 41 percent
Low sex drive
Men: 39 percent
Women: 27 percent
Stubborn
Men: 32 percent
Women: 34 percent
Talks too much
Men: 26 percent
Women: 20 percent
Too quiet
Men: 11 percent
Women: 17 percent