Despite the surging popularity of online dating, it may not be the best bet for those looking to marry, according to researchers at Michigan State University, East Lansing, who set out to explore how couples' meeting venues could play a role in the duration of the relationship.
They examined married couples and couples that didn't last, working with 4,002 responses to a survey, the results of which suggest that online dating is less likely to lead to marriage.
Of the survey respondents, 2,923 were either married (64.18 per cent) or in a romantic relationship (35.8 per cent) and only 280 couples in this pool had met online.
Eight per cent of married couples that had met online reported ending their marriages in separation or divorce whereas only two per cent of those who'd met in traditional offline circumstances reported divorce or separation.
The researchers concluded, however, that relationship quality was the most important factor in whether marriages and romantic relationships lasted.
"The time-tested qualities of trust and intimacy still remain important factors on determining whether a couple stays together, regardless of whether they meet offline or online," says Brenda K. Wiederhold, Editor in Chief of the journal Cyberpyschology, Behavior and Social Networking, in which the paper was .
For those looking to date and engage in whirlwind romance, online dating might be the best bet as researchers found that 96.3 per cent of dating website users were successful at forming relationships using them.
