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Photo: Suat Eman
The stereotype seems to be wrong when it comes to love and dating among men and women. According to a recent study conducted by the UK's Stella Magazine and YouGov, men take an average of only seven months to declare "I love you" to a partner, while women take an average of eight months.
Although the results contradict popular views that men are generally less sensitive and emotional while women tend to wear their emotions on their sleeves, Oliver James, the clinical psychologist and author of the study points out that these findings don't tell us the whole story.
James says that men are prone to get "swept away" by someone and fall in love more frequently than women. He states, "this is because women mature sooner than men and develop to be more hard-nosed, realistic and in touch with their emotions. So when a man says 'I love you' it might be his way of dealing with a lot of complex, difficult emotions that he doesn't really understand, whereas when a woman says it, it might carry a greater weight. The classic cliché is that men use love to get sex and women use sex to get love."
The study also found a difference in dating patterns among singles of different ages. Only one-fifth of young singles have joined Internet dating sites while almost two-thirds of men and women over 55 have joined. And the success rate? The older age group met more online dates and had more lasting relationships. The over 55s met up with an average of eight people each, and had relationships with an average of two each.
The older age group is also more experimental when it comes to dating, with one fifth joining a matchmaking organization and one in seven attending a singles event. Almost one quarter have tried speed dating.
Stella commissioned YouGov to interview almost 2,000 men and women of all ages and backgrounds who have been on at least one date in the past year.
For more info: Kelly Seal is a writer and former speed dating host. You can follow her blog Notes from the Dating Trenches at www.kellyseal.com, or her tweets @kellyseal. You can also subscribe to her posts on Examiner.com by clicking the link above.
Comments
Pfffft. That can't possibly count if we don't mean it. Right?
/Right?
Very interesting!
A one month difference between two groups doesn't seem significant to state something so definitively, especially considering the number of variables involved with something like this. I would expect a similar difference between any other two groups, but I wouldn't necessarily attribute the cause of this difference to the groups themselves.
Well, of course men say it first. Women wait so that they will.
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