Edited by Linda M. Bartoshuk, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, and approved May 1, 2013 (received for review December 24, 2012)
Marital discord is costly to children, families, and communities. The advent of the Internet, social networking, and on-line dating has affected how people meet future spouses, but little is known about the prevalence or outcomes of these marriages or the demographics of those involved. We addressed these questions in a nationally representative sample of 19,131 respondents who married between 2005 and 2012. Results indicate that more than one-third of marriages in America now begin on-line. In addition, marriages that began on-line, when compared with those that began through traditional off-line venues, were slightly less likely to result in a marital break-up (separation or divorce) and were associated with slightly higher marital satisfaction among those respondents who remained married. Demographic differences were identified between respondents who met their spouse through on-line vs. traditional off-line venues, but the findings for marital break-up and marital satisfaction remained significant after statistically controlling for these differences. These data suggest that the Internet may be altering the dynamics and outcomes of marriage itself.
Author contributions: G.C.G. designed research; J.T.C. and S.C. planned and oversaw the analysis of the data; G.C.G., E.L.O., and T.J.V. analyzed data; and J.T.C. and S.C. wrote the paper.
Conflict of interest statement: Harris Interactive was commissioned by eHarmony.com to perform a nationally representative survey of individuals in America married between 2005 and 2012. Harris Interactive was not involved in data analyses. J.T.C. is a scientific advisor to eHarmony.com, S.C. is the spouse of J.T.C., and G.C.G. is the former Director of eHarmony Laboratories. To ensure the integrity of the data and analyses and in accordance with procedures specified by JAMA, independent statisticians (E.L.O. and T.J.V.) oversaw and verified the statistical analyses based on a prespecified plan for data analyses. In addition, an agreement with eHarmony was reached prior to the analyses of the data to ensure that any results bearing on eHarmony.com would not affect the publication of the study. The materials and methods used (including the Harris Survey, Codebook, and Datafile) are provided in the Appendix S1, Appendix S2, and Dataset S1 to ensure transparency and objectivity.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1222447110/-/DCSupplemental.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
