What Does Open Casting Mean In Your Dating Life?

If you ask anyone about the kind of people they date, they're likely to tell you that they have a "type." Whether that type is brunette, blond, tall, short, long hair, short hair, tattoos, piercings, a physique of an athlete or dad bod, most people will claim they have a type, especially when it comes to swiping on dating apps.

A 2019 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found some interesting patterns when it comes to people and dating the same type of person. Based on the collective answers of those who partook in the study, participants' exes tended to have very similar personality traits, including core values, goals, religion affiliation, and intelligence. So types in dating are very real, but is it a good idea to date just another version of the same person over and over again?

"We are often attracted to people we can relate to and who share similar backgrounds and beliefs to us," matchmaker Samantha Rowland-Jones tells Stylist. "The partners we choose can be influenced from our early experiences with our primary caregivers, and it can also come down to something as simple as encountering a certain type of person more frequently in your everyday life."

While this may be the case, dating app Bumble is pushing for a whole new approach to dating in 2023: open casting.

If you're in the entertainment industry, you already know that open casting, at least in that world, is an open call for any performer to audition for a film, movie, television program, or any other production. It's called open casting because they're looking for all types to fill roles, from leading roles to supporting roles, right on down to walk-ons. Since that's what open casting looks like in the entertainment industry, it's also what it looks like in dating — but in a slightly different way.

"With open-casting, we are seeing people more willing to date outside their type, and valuing emotional maturity over physical attractiveness, which shows we are less focused on superficial qualities like looks and more focused on who we are emotionally compatible with," Bumble's communications director Lucille McCart tells News.com.au.

Sure, you may always go for the struggling musician with the full-sleeve tattoos, but how is that working out for you? Maybe it's time to try the musician who actually has a full-time, paying job who puts more money into their savings account for the future, instead of adding more ink to their arms — that's the basic idea of open casting in the dating world.

With open casting, you're opening up yourself to a whole bevy of people you would never date before and that's a good thing. Just because someone doesn't have the "look" or "style" you usually go for, it doesn't mean that you should immediately dismiss them. People don't have to look like a hipster to actually be really cool, just like you can't discern straight away who's ready for something that goes beyond a few dates and who's just going to breadcrumb you. So why not look beyond your type?

"I think maybe a silver lining of lockdown is you know someone might be really attractive but will they pick out good stuff on TV or put the bins out? I think we've gone past looks and we're prioritizing emotional maturity," sex therapist Dr. Caroline West tells Evoke, adding, "sexual maturity leads to better sex, it leads to better boundaries, [conversations] about money as well, and also what the future of the relationship is."

Although there's nothing wrong with sticking with what you know, there could be greener pastures by trying out different types of people. A NASA astronaut may not be the usual finance bro you go for, but that can be a great thing, so maybe give open casting a try in 2023 and see if it's a better fit than all your so-called types before.