ORIGINAL PAPER ‘‘My Family Would Crucify Me!’’: The Perceived Influence of Social Pressure on Cross-Cultural and Interfaith Dating and Marriage Siham Yahya • Simon Boag Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014 Abstract The present study examined the perceived influence of parental and social pressure on individuals’ perceptions regarding cross-cultural and interfaith dating and marriage. The questions of interest were: (1) What is the influence of parental attitudes towards interfaith and cross-cultural relationships? (2) How do the participants feel it impacts upon them? And lastly, (3) How do the participants predict they will respond to their children’s choice of such relationships? Fifty-five university students with diverse backgrounds participated in this study. The findings indicate that the majority of the participants were influenced by the social pressure put upon them. Moreover, the participants perceived the previous generation as ‘‘racist’’. However, interestingly there are signs of a generational attitude shift. Finally, the findings show that over 80 % of the participants did not want to interfere in their children’s partner selection. The remaining 20 % were against interfaith and cross-cultural dating and marriages. Keywords Cross-cultural Á Interfaith Á Dating Á Marriage Á Religion Á Romance Á Love Introduction In an increasingly multicultural world, the chances and possibilities of falling in love with someone from a different faith or cultural background is greater than ever. Interfaith relationships involve intimate interpersonal contact between people (dating, cohabitation, and marriage) of different religious beliefs (e.g., Judaism, Christianity and Islam). On the other hand, cross-cultural relationships are relationships that occur between people from different cultural backgrounds. While S. Yahya (&) Á S. Boag Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia e-mail: siham.yahya@mq.edu.au 123 Sexuality & Culture DOI 10.1007/s12119-013-9217-y