Romantic Love is viewed by Pinker (2008) as a 'human universal' that's evolved to promote survival and reproduction, however for this to be true it needs to be found across all cultures.
Arranged is the most common form of marriage, only 6 out of 42 societies give complete freedom. Moghaddam et al (1998) found relationships in western cultures tend to be individualistic, voluntary and temporary whereas non-western tend to be collectivist, involuntary and permanent. Western cultures are more urban and have greater geographical and social mobility comparent to non-western - relationships tend to be tied to family or economic resources. Arranged marriage makes sense as you may never meet 'the one'. Divorce rates are low and in perhaps half of them the spouses report they've fallen in love (Epstein, 2002). Myers et al (2005) even found no difference in happiness between arranged and love marriage. In China before 1949 70% of parents decided but by the 1990's this was just 10%. As well as this divorce rates amongst arranged couples are on the rise showing personal freedom is gaining importance.
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