Question

Reflecting back on the triangular theory of love, how do arranged marriages typically compare to choice marriages that we have here in the US?

		commitment starts high in both arranged and choice marriages
		commitment starts high in arranged marriages, and starts low in choice marriages
		commitment starts low in both arranged and choice marriages
		intimacy starts high in arranged marriages, and starts low in choice marriages

Answer 1

Commitment starts high in both arranged and choices marriages.

This wasn’t an easy study to conduct. Arranged marriage--a form of marriage in which partners are selected by family members or professional matchmakers — is not the norm in our contemporary Western culture, and so it's fairly challenging to find people in the U.S. who have entered into that type of marital arrangement. And even in societies with a longstanding tradition of arranged marriage (for example, south and east Asia, the Middle East, and South America), prevalence rates have been on the decline for years, making it increasingly difficult for researchers interested in arranged marriages to find participants for their studies. Nonetheless, one of my intrepid thesis students managed to find a sample of adults living in the U.S. who were in arranged marriages contracted by their family members or professional matchmakers. She also identified a comparison sample of adults in love-based, free choice marriages in which they had personally chosen their spouses on the basis of love. On average, these men and women were 35 years old and had been married for 10 years; all were of Indian descent and most were Hindu. Each marriage had been contracted and had taken place in the U.S.

Now, because we were interested in comparing the relationship outcomes and experiences of men and women in these two types of marriage, we asked each participant to complete four commonly used questionnaires: (1) the Passionate Love Scale created by Dr. Elaine Hatfield (University of Hawaii) and Dr. Susan Sprecher (Illinois State University), which assesses the essential features of passionate, romantic love; (2) the Companionate Love Scale created by Dr. Sprecher and myself, which captures feelings of affectionate, friendship-based love; and (3) the Satisfaction and (4) the Commitment scales created by Dr. Caryl Rusbult