Over 42 million Americans smoke. You already know that it’s a very unhealthy habit — not to mention an expensive one — but could smoking cigarettes also doom you to singledom?
No matter how good your hair looks or how much fragrance you’ve sprayed on, when you look at the effects of smoking, there’s a chance that all of your grooming is for naught. Here are five reasons why you lighting up might make you more likely to stay single.
1. Smoking = Bad Teeth
Your smile is one of the first things that a potential boyfriend or girlfriend sees. Not only can smoking stain your teeth, but it puts you at twice the risk for gum disease, which can lead to tooth loss, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Think you can try just keeping your mouth closed? You’re not doing yourself any favors. According to British research, not smiling makes you less attractive. This is especially true for women, say researchers — women who smile are more likely to be perceived as attractive. And if that’s not enough scientific evidence for you, a survey on dating website Match.com found that 71 percent of women judged men most on their teeth. Fifty-eight percent of men judged women most on this feature.
2. Almost 90 Percent of People Don’t Want to Date Smokers
A 2014 survey of Match.com users revealed that 89 percent of people looking for love would prefer to couple up with a nonsmoker.
Even more damning, 57 percent of them said they’d “never” date a smoker. So, if you’re a smoker, you’ve automatically disqualified yourself from more than half of the dating pool. Further, they found that taking a smoke break while on a date was more unacceptable than checking your phone or being late.
What Smoking Does to Your Body
3. You Stink
An extensive paper from a Singaporean researcher sought to gather information on the sensory reactions that nonsmokers had to smokers. The results were not surprising for those of us who don’t indulge.
Because of the smell of stale smoke, smokers were found to be distanced from nonsmoking members of the public. This rendered them “sensually out of place,” said the researcher, “giving them away as subscribers of a ‘filthy habit’ and commuters of a social-sensual infraction.” In other words, the stink segregated smokers from nonsmokers, and likely didn’t spark any romantic relationships.
4. Smokers Are More Likely to Divorce
A 2010 review of research from Australia looked at 2,482 married couples over a period of six years. Marriages where both partners smoked were only slightly more likely to divorce than nonsmoking couples, but the figures for couples where only one partner smoked were positively mournful.
They found that marriages where one spouse was a smoker and the other was not were 75 to 91 percent more likely to end in divorce.
The Best Quit Smoking Apps of the Year
5. It Can Make You Bad at Sex
Smoking isn’t just bad for attracting a mate, but also for keeping one. Male smokers, and even former smokers, are more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED). And the research says that there is a cumulative effect: The longer you’ve been smoking, the worse your risk of ED is.
In addition, smoking is tough on your cardiovascular health. You won’t be up for a vigorous roll in the hay if you’re wheezing and can’t catch your breath.
The Takeaway
So, there you have it. Smoking doesn’t only make it more difficult to find a date, but it could also doom your marriage or relationship. When paired with the ill health effects, it’s definitely one bad habit worth breaking.
