When you’re out and about you never know when you’re going to run into that special someone. A surprising amount of people even find love on public transport, one friend of mine even had a few dates with her bus driver. A recent study suggests that finding a partner while on your daily commute may be more than just a coincidence.
The paper, “Going My Way? The Benefits of Travelling in the Same Direction” was researched by The Chinese University of Hong Kong and published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Essentially the paper suggests that “mere similarity in the direction of commuting to work increases marital satisfaction”. During their research they found the same significant statistical correalation in multiple cities, and even where couples didn’t even leave for work at the same time and didn’t travel together. Merely travelling the same route and direction, even not together, increased marital satisfaction.
The paper is a lot more intricate and detailed, but ultimately it suggests that a common psychology in travel-route can lead to better comradeship between people. It’s not only just in marriage, but also pertains to how well people get on in general.
The full paper is available here.
