Recent research conducted by Mustard has shown that younger people would be much less trusting if it came to their partners heading off for regular dance lessons with someone else.

Mustard delivered a series of online polls in support of our friend and novelist Tracy Bloom’s fifth novel – Strictly My Husband, whose latest romantic comedy was inspired by the dreaded “strictly curse” which has plagued some of the participants in the hit BBC TV show Strictly Come Dancing.

We polled more than 1,000 people.

Firstly, we asked “Would you allow your partner to go for regular dance lessons with someone other than yourself?”

More than half (56%) of those aged 55+ and half (51%) of men said they would be “absolutely fine” with this. It was the 18-34 year old age group that would be least trusting, with 44% saying they would have “some concerns” and 18% saying they would have “major concerns”.

Secondly, we asked “Imagine your partner started having regular dance lessons with someone else. How trusting or untrusting would you be?”.

Here, the differences between age groups became even more pronounced.

Almost 2 in 3 (62%) of those aged 55% said they would be “totally trusting” of both their partner’s and their dance partner’s motives. This figure falls to 42% among those aged 35-54 and 31% of those aged 18-34.

The younger audiences are especially likely to say they would be untrusting of their dance partner’s motives (55% say this) – more so than their partner’s motives (38% say this).

These gaps are less marked among those aged 35-54 meanwhile (40% untrusting of their dance partner’s motives, 36% untrusting of their partner’s motives).

Richard Walker, director at Mustard, commented:

“These polls clearly show an underlying mistrust among UK couples amongst the millennials, gen y and gen x generations, that is far less prevalent among the baby boomers. The extent to which the millennial and gen y audiences mistrust the dance partner is also significant and suggests an interesting sub-plot – these younger people having an inbred mistrust of people they don’t know”.

Tracy Bloom, who commissioned the research, commented:

“STRICTLY MY HUSBAND is about the chaos inflicted on a marriage when a glamorous young dancer lands right in the middle of it. I wanted to find out how people would feel if their partner suddenly declared an interest in dancing with someone other than them. I was shocked at the extreme response with younger adults clearly seeing it as a big threat.”

Tracy Bloom has sold nearly half a million ebooks in the UK, and Strictly my Husband is her fifth novel, following I will marry George Clooney (by Christmas), Single Woman Seeks Revenge, No-one ever has sex in the suburbs, and No-one ever has sex on a Tuesday.

Mustard previously conducted research to establish whether it was true that “people never have sex on a Tuesday” – and the assumptions were proven right!”

Why People Don’t Have Sex on Tuesday’s 

Strictly My Husband is available to buy now from Amazon.co.uk.