研究：网络情缘带来的婚姻更幸福

美国芝加哥大学的研究人员发现，与传统相识方式相比，通过网络结识的情侣结婚后婚姻更幸福也更长久。这背后的原因可能是，上网找另一半时动力更足以及相亲网站在配对时更精细。研究人员对2万名在2005年到2017年间结婚的人士调查后发现，通过网络结识另一半的占三分之一，且对婚姻满意度较高；而在酒吧或通过相亲认识另一半的人，其婚姻破裂的几率要比网络情缘产生的婚姻高25%，他们对婚姻的满意度也最低。此前已有研究显示，通过网络相识的情侣在第一次见面后再次约见的几率很高，因为他们已经在网上互通了不少个人信息。另外，虽然网络相亲者有时也说些谎话，不过都是有关身高、体重的善意谎言。

It may not be the most romantic way to meet the love of your life – but it could be the best way to ensure they really are for life.

Finding Mr or Mrs Right online is more likely to lead to a happier and longer marriage than getting together through more traditional means, a study has found.

A relationship started in cyberspace is 25 percent less likely to end in divorce or separation than those that began through friends or chance.

The success could be down to a higher motivation to find love among internet daters and the efforts that websites put in to match partners, say researchers.

Chicago University psychologists studied almost 20,000 people who had married between 2005 and 2017 and asked them a series of questions about their happiness.

Just over a third had met their spouse online, with around half of these using internet dating and the rest via chat rooms and social networking sites.

Those who were still married were happier if they had met online.

However, relationships that began through work, in a bar or club or on a blind date were 25 percent more likely to end – and those couples were among the least satisfied, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports.

Professor John Cacioppo, who led the study, said the sheer number of available potential partners online could be among the reasons for the results.

Previous research has shown that online daters are more likely to see each other again after a first meeting because they share more information about themselves online.

And while the relative anonymity of online dating does allow for prospective partners to lie about their attributes, studies suggest this mostly takes the form of white lies about weight and height.

The findings of the US study, commissioned by matchmaking company eHarmony, could also apply elsewhere, said Prof Cacioppo.

Britons are Europe’s most prolific internet daters.

More than 5.7million people in the UK logged on to internet dating sites in September 2017 – a 22 percent increase on the same month a year earlier, according to internet market research company comScore.

The websites were most popular among the 25 to 34 age group, but they are becoming increasingly attractive to the older generation.