The cliché that attributed glamour, sensuality and more sex appeal to smokers no longer works. Also don’t ask for fire to hook up, because today smoking is not only unsexy but also reduces the chances of getting a partner. According to an analysis by the Dua platform, among more than 460,000 users of its app, overall, smokers receive 53% fewer matches than non-smokers. And among women, non-smokers receive 64% more proposals.
A study from the Department of Psychology at the University of Oviedo already pointed to this trend in 2018. Researchers analyzed whether smoking cigarettes affected the choice of a partner for an intimate and casual relationship, and found that only 11% of smokers , 6.2% of non-smokers and 9.1% of ex-smokers preferred a smoker for an informal and intimate relationship. For 41.6% of non-smokers and 27% of ex-smokers, tobacco consumption weighed against starting a relationship.
For this reason, being a smoker or not is one of the features that users include in the profiles of dating apps. “I don’t smoke much and it doesn’t matter to me if the other smokes or not, but it is something that is stated to avoid situations such as being told ‘I didn’t come to lick an ashtray’ or ‘before I prefer a dish of aioli than this smell of tobacco,'” says Montse (45 years old). Pau (23 years old) says that he has had no problem being a smoker, but he has detected some disdain or comments of moral superiority from some non-smokers, and he has begun to realize that tobacco is reducing his options of hooking up because he sees how his non-smoking friends are looking for partners who don’t smoke either and there are many more non-smokers”.
Antonio Baena and Blanca Benito, psychologists and members of the National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking (CNPT), point out that the reason why tobacco consumption has ceased to be glamorous is that smoking has become “denormalised”. Only a third of the Spanish population aged between 15 and 64 smoke regularly (see infographic), so that “the normal” is not to use tobacco and that people prefer to be in smoke-free environments and with people who do not smoke .
The fact that smoking is prohibited in places of leisure and work also contributes. “Today smokers have to choose to stay with other smokers or to separate from the group, to leave the conversation, to go out to smoke”, points out Benito, who is also a technician for the Government of Cantabria’s smoking plan. In fact, although the main arguments of non-smokers and ex-smokers for not having a smoking partner are bad breath, the smell of tobacco and smoke, in the study by the University of Oviedo 6% mentioned precisely the fact of having to leave a place to smoke.
Baena emphasizes that, however, most non-smokers are very tolerant and, despite the fact that the social perception of tobacco has changed, those who consume it are not criminalized. “They have not taken the step of looking down on the smoker, and more than the moral superiority of the non-smoker what is sometimes there is a feeling of inferiority of those who know they are taking a drug and cannot control it”, says the psychologist and professor at the UOC.
The president of Nofumadores.org, Raquel Fernández Megina, assures that, devoid of any glamour, tobacco continues to have a lot of social acceptance in public spaces but less so in private ones. “When it comes to intimate relationships or sharing a home, we are no longer so permissive; there is more and more demand for flats where smoking is not allowed”, he says. Real estate reports confirm this. According to data from the Idealista platform, if in 2008 the percentage of people looking for non-smoking flatmates was 31.9%, last year 76% established this condition for tenants. And Pisos.com points out that 27.20% of the rooms offered last year expressly stated that smoking was prohibited.
Ana DomÃnguez, professor of Labor Law and Social Security at the University of Seville, assures that another area in which the social perception of smokers has changed radically is that of employment. “A few decades ago, smoking was accepted and generalized in any work environment, including the doctor’s office or a school classroom; today, smoking is not only prohibited in all closed spaces of any business, but companies are expected to contribute to employees giving up this habit and we are beginning to see how some restrict new hires to non-smokers”, he points out. And in case anyone doubts that a company can refuse to hire a person because he smokes, he explains that both current legislation and jurisprudence allow it. “Differential treatment is not always discrimination; the causes of discrimination are assessed by laws and jurisprudence and refer to personal circumstances that have historically segregated or marginalized a group, such as sex, race or age; tobacco is not”, justifies DomÃnguez.
And he adds that establishing a difference in treatment for smokers to protect the majority of the population for health and integrity issues is fully justified. “A company can refuse to hire someone who smokes because it is a smoke-free space, because it does not want customers to smell tobacco when they enter the business, because they are afraid that they will neglect their duties to go out to smoke or that the fact that they do not being able to do so will cause him anxiety and reduce his productivity… If the boss believes that smoking can have negative consequences, he has the freedom of the company to deny the workplace to the person in question”, concludes the expert in Labor Law work
