Gen Z Is Buying Love Spells Online, And Almost Half Say They Worked

Dating apps take your money and your patience, then sometimes hand you three hours with a guy who says “females” too much. So it’s hard to blame anyone who thinks a candle and an internet love spell can’t do much worse.

According to DatingNews, 64% of Gen Z had tried some kind of spiritual or psychic practice for their love life. Manifestation was the biggest one, at 29%, while a quarter had seen a psychic. Millennials weren’t exactly sitting this out either; in fact, 51% said they’d tried something similar.

Some of them pay strangers to do the magic for them. Nineteen percent of Gen Z said they’d bought a spell or love ritual through platforms like Etsy or TikTok, compared with just 2% of baby boomers. Etsy banned listings for metaphysical services promising things like love or revenge back in 2015. That did not, unsurprisingly, make the internet run out of witches.

Can You Manifest a Better Love Life? Plenty of Gen Z Daters Are Trying.

Older Americans seem to take this stuff much less seriously. Pew Research found that 30% of Americans consult astrology, tarot, or a fortune teller at least once a year, and most say they’re doing it for fun. In a DatingNews survey, 40% of boomers who tried a love ritual said it was for entertainment. Only 15% of Gen Z said the same.

Gen Z had more practical hopes for the whole thing. Twenty-two percent wanted to improve a relationship, and 13% were trying to win back an ex, the highest share of any generation. Nearly half said whatever they tried worked at least a little. Of course, if your ex texts three days after you paid $18 for a reconciliation spell, the spell gets credit, whether Mercury, free will, or boredom had anything to do with it.

Even DatingNews was careful about that. “Now, whether hiring an Etsy witch or a TikTok tarot reader actually improves one’s love life is impossible to say,” the outlet wrote.

The survey gets even more interesting when it asks who people actually trust for dating advice. Therapy came in first among Gen Z at 38%. Daily horoscopes came in second at 14%, while love spells pulled 8%, just ahead of dating coaches at 7%.

That combination feels very 2026: book a therapy appointment, check your horoscope, and maybe Venmo a witch if Hinge has been especially demoralizing this week.

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