Forged on Internet weddings can last longer

Study found couples who met online were slightly more likely to stay together

By Randy Dotinga

HealthDay Reporter

Monday, June 3 (HealthDay new) - If you are looking for the perfect companion, a new study suggests you might be on the right track if you turn to the Internet: married couples who met online were slightly more likely to be happy and to stay together than those who have raced in the other the old fashioned way.

The difference was small, although the number of people who met online was great, and the researchers who study marriage say that the study presents some weaknesses. Again the lead author John Cacioppo of the University of Chicago, says that it should reinforce to anyone who fears that online dating is not the best way to start a romantic relationship.

"I hope this encourages people to feel authentic and not weird if they feel so busy that they go online to meet people," said Cacioppo, Director of the centre of the University for social neuroscience and cognitive science. "This is a new environment and a new world, and it is not one that we fear.

In the new study, eHarmony, an online dating service, commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct an investigation in line of over 19,000 people in the United States who were married to members of the sex opposite between 2005 and 2012. Independent statisticians verified the results of the survey.

Given that weddings were so recent, the divorce rate (5%) and separation (2.5 per cent) was low.

The researchers found that more than a third of those surveyed met their spouses online. Among young people, 45% met through dating sites, while 21% have met through social networks like Facebook.

Those who have met online were more likely to be very old, very young and not rich; they were also more likely to mingle in work (22%), with friends (19%) or at school (11%).

The researchers found that 7.6 per cent of those who met offline had obtained divorced, compared to 5.9 percent of those who have met online. This difference has resisted even when researchers adjusted their statistics to account for the high numbers or few people who shared similarities such as age or income.

The study also found that those who met online were slightly happier in their marriage. However, their spouses did not say in the survey and the study does not provide an easy way to layman to understand differences in happy marriages appeared to be.

Why marriages that have had their start online could be happier and more stable? One possibility is that they are more focused on the search for relationships "rather than falling into a relationship with someone they met through a friend or at work," has said Elizabeth Schoenfeld, a graduate student at the University of Texas, who studies human behavior. "It is possible that this initial motivation to ensure a relationship partner can translate a motivation more later to stay in the relationship."

Markie Blumer, an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who studies marriage, said the study is "strong enough", even though it has a few flaws.

On the one hand, she says, it is an online survey which naturally includes persons who are particularly gifted in Internet. On the other hand, it does not account for same-sex couples, who are still more likely to answer online, she said.

Future research, Blumer suggested, should be to look more closely at how relations evolve with or without technology. It is possible, for example, some people meet online, but then develop their romance in person.

The study appears in the online issue of this week by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.