People in relationships are not equally satisfied

On average, people in a relationship are happier than singles. But does this difference apply equally everywhere? An international research team led by Dr Tita Gonzalez Avilés from the Chair of Developmental Psychology, Education and Learning at Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg has investigated this question. The researchers investigated whether the difference in life satisfaction between singles and people in a relationship is linked to where they live. They used the proportion of people in a relationship within a region as an indicator of this. The results have now been published in the journal Psychological Science.

Extensive data set provides insight into regional differences

In addition to the University of Bamberg, the study involved Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the University of Cambridge and the University of St Gallen. The researchers analysed data from more than 382,000 people across 379 regions in the UK. The data comes from the so-called Big Personality Test, a large-scale online study conducted by the University of Cambridge in collaboration with the BBC. The researchers compared the overall life satisfaction of singles and people in a relationship and correlated this with the proportion of people in a relationship in the respective regions. For the purposes of the study, people in a relationship were defined as all participants who stated that they were in a romantic relationship at the time of the survey – regardless of their marital status. The result: regardless of where they lived, people in a relationship reported higher overall satisfaction than singles. At the same time, this difference was significantly greater in regions with a high proportion of people in relationships than in regions with fewer couples. The key factor here was the life satisfaction of people in relationships: this was higher in regions with many couples, whilst there were hardly any regional differences among singles.

Social environment influences life satisfaction

The study thus provides a new perspective on the link between relationships and well-being. Previous research has primarily shown that singles and people in a relationship differ in terms of their life satisfaction. The focus of possible explanations has mainly been on individual factors. The new study now shows that the social environment also plays a role. The researchers suspect that regional relationship norms are significant in this regard. Where partnerships are particularly widespread, they may be perceived more strongly as the social norm. People in relationships may consequently experience greater social validation. “People do not live in isolation from their environment. Regional norms and social expectations can influence how people perceive and evaluate their own life situation,” explains Tita Gonzalez Avilés.

Results stand up to extensive testing

To rule out alternative explanations, the research team took numerous factors into account, such as age, income, education, health and personality traits. In addition, the researchers tested their findings using various statistical methods and were able to confirm them at a smaller geographical scale across 218 London neighbourhoods.

The study opens up new avenues for research into relationships and well-being. According to the researchers, future work should examine in greater detail which social experiences, societal norms and institutional frameworks underpin these regional differences.