A new study about marriage reveals it doesn’t take all that long to decide whether you want to marry somebody.
The study, conducted by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America (PNAS) and released on Monday, reveals that it takes people an average of 172 days to decide whether they want to marry the person they’re dating. (RELATED: Bride Arrested For Driving Under The Influence While Driving To Her Wedding)
The survey asked around 2,000 people — both in relationships and otherwise — to estimate how long they would need to determine what kind of future they wanted with a person. On average, they estimated that they wanted around 210 days to make the decision, but in reality, the time frame is a lot quicker.
“Romantic partners might incorrectly assume that deciding to tie the knot is a lengthy and deliberative decision,” Nadav Klein, a co-author on the study, told The New York Post. “Our findings suggest that people misunderstand how quickly they make judgments.”
The surprisingly short time frame may have something to do with today’s increasingly digitalized culture in which people are used to taking in mass amounts of information and breaking it into more bite-sized, understandable pieces.
“In today’s information age, people may intuitively believe that exchanging ever-more information will foster better-informed opinions and perspectives — but much of this information may be lost on minds long made up,” the study suggests.
Also of note: how long it takes a person to let their guard down.
“After the three-month honeymoon period, people tend to let down their guards and you begin to get a true glimpse of the real person and how they deal with the good and bad and everything in between,” relationship psychologist Joe Taravella told the Post.
Which may, in part, explain why it took Ariana Grande and SNL star Pete Davidson only a few months to realize it was time to call of their engagement.
Maybe there is a science to matters of the heart…