Is cuffing season real?

Our founder Jamie reckons cuffing season is more of a social media trend than a real thing. Here's what the research says about whether we really pair up when the weather turns cold.

‍

In short

• Cuffing season is the idea that single people look to couple up in autumn and winter, then go back to being single in the spring.
• Nobody has studied cuffing season by name, but some research does find seasonal patterns in dating and sex.
• Online searches for dating sites peak in winter and again in early summer, so it isn't only about the cold.
• The biggest peaks line up with Christmas and the summer holidays, which points to the calendar as much as the weather.
• Jamie's advice: settle down whenever it feels right for you, not because of the time of year.

‍

We think cuffing season is a bit of a myth. Sure, people might look for a little more comfort when it’s cold outside, but that doesn’t make it the only reason someone settles down. Relationships start and end all year round, which is why we see cuffing season as more of a social media term than anything else.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with finding love or wanting to put yourself out there a bit more at this time of year. So date in winter, date in spring, date in summer.

Jamie, Mattr's founder, was recently asked on the street whether cuffing season is really a thing. This is the longer version, with the research behind it.

‍

What is cuffing season?

Cuffing season is the idea that as the nights draw in, single people start looking for someone to settle down with, at least until the spring. The ‘cuffing’ comes from handcuffs: being tied to one person for the colder months. Come spring, so the idea goes, the relationship has done its job and everyone goes back to being single.

It's easy to see why it feels true. Dark evenings, cold weather, Christmas parties and family asking if you're seeing anyone yet all make being single feel more noticeable at this time of year.

‍

What does the research say?

There's no study of cuffing season by name. What researchers have found are seasonal patterns that come close to it.

In a 2013 paper in Archives of Sexual Behavior, Patrick and Charlotte Markey looked at US Google searches from 2006 to 2011 for pornography, prostitution and dating sites. All three rose and fell on a six-month cycle, peaking in winter and again in early summer. Searches for things like pets and car parts, which they used as a comparison, showed no such pattern. The rises were small, a few percent above average, though across a whole country that's a lot of searches.

An older paper points the same way. In 1999, Kaye Wellings and colleagues looked at records of births, abortions, sexually transmitted infections, HIV tests and condom sales across the year. In the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, they reported a clear rise in sexual activity around Christmas, and a longer but smaller rise over the summer holidays.

The cold might also leave us craving a bit of warmth. In a 2012 study in the Journal of Consumer Research, Jiewen Hong and Yacheng Sun found that people who felt physically cold liked romance films more. Online film rental data told the same story: the colder the weather, the more popular romance films were. That's films rather than partners, but it fits the idea of wanting to get cosy when it's cold.

‍

Is it the cold, or the calendar?

Here's the catch. In both the search data and the health records, there's a second peak in the summer, when it's warm and light. What winter and summer have in common is holidays: more time off, more parties and more time around other people. The researchers couldn't say whether the pattern comes from biology, from how we spend our time, or from a bit of both.

Shorter, darker days can affect how we feel, too. The NHS links reduced daylight in winter with seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression that comes and goes with the seasons. If the dark evenings are getting to you, that's worth looking after for its own sake, not a reason to rush into a relationship.

‍

Jamie's take: it's a social media trend

Jamie's view is that cuffing season is more a social media trend than a real pattern. Settle down with someone, or stay happily single and cosy, whenever it feels right for you, and not because of what the calendar says.

The research mostly backs that up. There are small seasonal ups and downs in how much we search, date and have sex, but nothing that says winter is the time you should be looking for a partner. A relationship that only exists because it's cold outside probably won't last much past March, and that's fine if that's what you both want. It's less fine if only one of you knows that's the deal.

If you're dating this winter, it's worth asking yourself:

• Do I like this person, or do I just not want to be on my own right now?
• Would I still want this in the spring?
• Am I feeling pressure from social media, friends or family to be with someone?

‍

Date at your pace

On Mattr there's no daily cap and nothing expires, so you can take your time getting to know someone, whatever the season.

Sources

• Markey, P. M. & Markey, C. N. (2013). Seasonal variation in internet keyword searches: a proxy assessment of sex mating behaviors. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42(4), 515–521.
• Wellings, K., Macdowall, W., Catchpole, M. & Goodrich, J. (1999). Seasonal variations in sexual activity and their implications for sexual health promotion. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 92(2), 60–64.
• Hong, J. & Sun, Y. (2012). Warm it up with love: the effect of physical coldness on liking of romance movies. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(2), 293–306.
• NHS. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD).