Study Suggests Online Dating Leads to More Happy Marriages

Best way to meet Mr. or Ms. Right?

A new study says something we’ve known for a while but perhaps never really acknowledged.

Computer dating leads to happier marriages.

If you’re like me, you’re saying, “what about just a chance meeting with the person who’s right for you?”

Apparently it doesn’t happen that way.

Put it this way, were it not for an internet dating service, I wouldn’t have that beautiful grandson of mine.

My daughter had to kiss a few frogs till she found the right guy.
And he’s a great kid. Soft spoken, handy around the house; fits right in with the Rossi Posse (not an easy thing to do); and subtlety knows how to bust his father-in-law’s balls!

See, so none of these things happen by chance.
According to this:

More than a third of recent marriages in the USA started online, according to a study.

The research, based on a survey of more than 19,000 individuals who married between 2005 and 2012, also found relationships that began online are slightly happier and less likely to split than those that started offline.

Findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, put the percentage of married couples that now meet online at almost 35%. About 45% of couples met on dating sites; the rest met on online social networks, chat rooms, instant messaging or other online forums.

Lead author John Cacioppo, a psychologist and director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, says dating sites may "attract people who are serious about getting married."

The one caveat in this whole thing is that the study was commissioned by the dating website eHarmony, according to the study's conflict of interest statement. Company officials say eHarmony paid Harris Interactive $130,000 to field the research. Cacioppo has been a member of eHarmony's Scientific Advisory Board since it was created in 2007. In addition, former eHarmony researcher Gian Gonzaga is one of the five co-authors.

Sociologist Michael Rosenfeld of Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., says the paper is a "serious and interesting paper" and "Cacioppo is a serious scholar with a big reputation," he is concerned that "the use of an Internet survey which leaves non-Internet households out might bias the results."

Cacioppo defends the results, and says that before he agreed to analyze the data, "I set stipulations that it would be about science and not about eHarmony." He adds that two independent statisticians from Harvard University were among co-authors.

Here’s the bottom line.

Is it better to find your mate on line than in a social setting like a bar or through friends or family?

Don’t go friends, don’t go family, because if it doesn’t work out, you might be making enemies.

Go online, and yes, while you’re taking a risk; at least you know going in what the risks are.