Couples who met online are happier and healthier than their traditional counterparts, study says
Online daters seem to be more satisfied with their partners and do better at marriage than those couples who met in a more traditional way.
Couples who meet online are more satisfied with their relationships than those who met the traditional way, according to a new survey.
Researchers from the University of Chicago, Harvard and Gestalt Research found that there has been a profound shift in how people meet their partners.
It turns out that the pickiness afforded to online daters may pay off in the end.
The study looked at nearly 20,00 people surveyed across the US.
About 45 percent of participants had used dating websites and 21 percent found each other on other social networks.
The others had met at work, through a friend or social events.
They found that those people who met online were not only happier, but stayed together longer.
Marital splits were reported in six percent of online couples versus eight percent for their more traditional counterparts over the course of the seven-year study.
As for marital satisfaction, couples who met online were also more satisfied, researchers said, but did not give specific percentages.
One can only speculate as to why online couples do better than traditional ones. It's likely that a possibly more rigorous initial selection process may have something to do with it.
The findings will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).