What No One Ever Told You About People Who Are Single

“Whenever you hear the claim that married people are doing better than single people, beware.” – Bella DePaulo

Even though the marriage rate in the United States recently hit an all-time low, most Americans still view the institution positively and consider it to be the ideal relationship state. Why? It is deeply embedded in our culture that a monogamous marriage–finding “the one”–is the key to happiness and meaning in life, while being single is just lonely and sad. As it turns out, however, a lot of what we’ve been told about marriage just isn’t true.

In the TEDx talk below, Dr. Bella DePaulo uses the science of relationships to debunk some of the most common things we’ve been told about both marriage and singlehood. Specifically, she addresses the following beliefs: (1) married people are more socially connected than singles, (2) married people are less lonely than singles, and (3) married people have more purpose and meaning in life than singles. As you’ll see, it turns out that the data don’t support any of these ideas–and, in fact, research shows precisely the opposite pattern for some of them! Check out the full video to learn more.

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