Since ‘prejudice’ may not be the right word. I’ll explain what I mean by it.

There exist people that are quick to make snap judgements about others. Often based on superficial observations.

They will assume deep insights about a person’s character and personality, based on nothing but a stereotype. Then act accordingly to what they believe that person is like

Example: young women with coloured hair and tattoos. Some will assume what she likes to do for fun, the music she’s into. Her relationship with her family and her sexual history. All from fucking hair dye and tattoos.

Usually all it takes is confirmation of one thing they guessed being true, to believe they are right about everything else.

Another example is: young guy who plays videogames. Same thing will happen. It’s crazy.

What’s crazy is that people will act on this “information” as though it is fact.

How does it apply to dating? Well people carry this attitude into dating and it makes things harder. Their prejudice causes them to write off so many people for traits they have imagined about them that they end up frustrated.

EDIT: the first time I posted this I think it got removed so I cleaned this one up a bit. However I wanted to incluse a comment made from /u/Gravel_Roads before it got removed

Yeah, but it's way more common than you'd realize, it's just usually more subtle. Humans learn by taking experiences they have or have witnessed, and then projecting those experiences into the future to "predict" what future experiences will be like. (ie, because I have held a pen, I know what a pen feels like, so I can pretty accurately predict what a different pen will feel like because I've held any pens before.) This helps a lot in dealing with tools, driving, climbing, dressing for weather, balancing on different surfaces ect... but it really sucks in dealing with people.

People who rely on stereotypes tend to have low curiosity thresholds (usually developed environmentally, not naturally occurring); they aren't interested in exploring their bias - it's "good enough" for them, and they don't care about nuance. Not only does this increase the "isms" (racism, sexism, ableism ect) and all the problematic behavior associated with it, but it also retults in people able to have less FUN.

Low curiosity doesn't just mean you don't care to explore the accuracy of your assumptions - it also means you aren't as interested in new things in general. They tend to have a harder time enjoying life in general (they don't enjoy travel, they care less about experiencing new cultures, learning new languages, learning new routes, navigating new cities, trying new foods, dancing to new music ect.)

They're essentially boring and don't like doing very many things.

This does, indeed, make dating much harder.