Free-choice and arranged marriages do not differ in their love scores, study finds

A study of individuals from five non-Western societies where both arranged and free-choice marriages are practiced found no differences between people in these two types of marriages in the three dimensions of love – intimacy, passion, and commitment. There were, however, some differences specific to some, but not all, of these cultures. The paper was published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Across cultures, people find marital partners through a range of systems that vary in the degree of individual choice and family involvement. In some cultures, people believe that individuals should freely choose their romantic and marital partners. In such free-choice marriage systems, common in many Western societies, individuals select partners on their own, based on romantic attraction, shared interests, and personal compatibility. Dating, social networks, workplaces, and online platforms play a central role in these cultures.

In contrast to this, there are cultures that practice arranged marriages. Such marriages are common in parts of South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. In these systems, families play a decisive role in partner selection as marriage is arranged through negotiations between families of prospective spouses. Considerations such as family reputation, social status, religion, and economic compatibility are often prioritized over romantic love.

Some arranged marriages allow the prospective spouses to meet and consent, while others involve minimal direct choice. Many societies practice hybrid models, where families introduce potential partners but individuals retain the power to refuse a prospective partner. Cultural norms about gender roles strongly shape who initiates partner search and how courtship unfolds.

Study author Piotr Sorokowski and his colleagues wanted to explore differences in the characteristics of love between marital partners who lived in arranged and those in free-choice marriages from cultures that practiced both types of marriage. They hypothesized that free-choice marriages might exhibit higher levels of intimacy and passion, while people living in arranged marriages might demonstrate higher levels of commitment. They also believed that free-choice marriages might present higher levels of love irrespective of marriage duration, while love might develop over time in arranged marriages.

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The study authors selected five non-Western societies that practiced both types of marriages. These were the Igbo people (living in Igboland in the south-central and south-eastern parts of Nigeria), Bhotiya (an ethnic group living in the Himalayas and ethnolinguistically related to Tibetans), Meru (a group of 26 clans living in Tanzania, mainly adhering to a traditional agrarian lifestyle), the Kimeru (indigenous inhabitants of central Kenya), and Tsimane’ (a native Amazonian society of farmer-foragers in Bolivia).

Participants included 110 Bhotiya, 98 Igbo, 124 Kimeru, 118 Meru, and 148 Tsimane’ individuals. Meru participants were all women, while women comprised around 50% of participants in the other four groups.

Participants reported the type of marriage they are in by answering the question, “Did you choose with whom you would marry, or was your spouse chosen for you, by, for instance, your family?” They also completed a simplified assessment of love characteristics (a shortened version of the Triangular Love Scale). This scale assesses three aspects of love: intimacy (e.g., “I share deeply personal information about myself with my partner”), passion (e.g., “I find myself thinking about my partner frequently during the day”), and commitment (e.g., “I view my relationship with my partner as permanent”).

Results showed that, on average, participants living in arranged marriages did not differ on the three dimensions of love from those living in free-choice marriages. However, among Bhotiya and Tsimane’ participants, those living in free-choice marriages tended to report higher levels of intimacy.

Notably, for the Bhotiya, this difference in intimacy was only evident in marriages lasting longer than 10 years. Moreover, Bhotiya participants in free-choice marriages tended to report higher levels of passion, while Tsimane’ individuals in free-choice marriages tended to report higher levels of commitment compared to their peers from the same ethnic group living in arranged marriages.

In contrast to this, Meru women living in arranged marriages tended to report higher levels of intimacy and passion compared to Meru women in free-choice marriages.

“Our data challenge the Western perception that arranged marriages lack love,” the study authors concluded.

The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the quality of relationships in arranged marriages. However, it should be noted that the study data came from self-reports, leaving room for reporting bias to have affected the results.

Also, the study authors reported translating the assessment of love to participants’ languages but did not report conducting psychometric analyses necessary to determine whether scale scores are directly comparable (measurement invariance testing). Therefore, it remains unknown whether the observed results are caused by real differences in love or potentially by differences in ways men and women from these cultures understand scale items and respond to statements of this type.

The paper, “Love Components in Free‑Choice and Arranged Marriages Among Five Non‑Western Populations From Africa, Amazonia, and Himalayas,” was authored by Piotr Sorokowski, Agata Groyecka‑Bernard, Marta Kowal, Marina Butovskaya, Michal Mikolaj Stefanczyk, Tomas Huanca, Amit Kumar, Upma Manral, Oneyekachi M. Odo, Ike E. Onyishi, and Wiktoria Jędryczka.