How Love Emerges in Arranged Marriages: Two Cross-cultural Studies

Two studies (N = 52) examined how love emerged in arranged marriages involving participants from 12 different countries of origin and 6 different religions. The first study (n = 30), mainly qualitative in design, found that self-reported love grew from a mean of 3.9 to 8.5 on a 10-point scale. A number of factors were identified that appeared to contribute to the growth of love, the most important of which was commitment. In the second study = 22), mainly quantitative in design, 36 factors that might contribute to the growth. of love were assessed, with participants indicating on a 13-point scale (from -6 to +6) whether each factor made their love grow weaker or stronger. Love grew from a mean of 5.1 to 9.2, and sacrifice and commitment emerged as the most powerful factors in strengthening love. These and other factors appear to work because they make people feel vulnerable in each other's presence, a hypothesis that is consistent with a growing body of laboratory research. The fact that love can grow in some arranged marriages-and that this process can apparently be analyzed and understood scientifically-raises the possibility that practices that are used to strengthen love in arranged marriages could be introduced into autonomous marriages in Western cultures, where love normally weakens over time.