They say that "love is blind", but it seems that money still plays a role in romantic relationships. Thus, our love choices would not simply be based on feelings and emotions but also on the money we have in relation to the other. A study says so. “We wanted to better understand the psychological importance of money in the development of romantic relationships because nothing is known about this subject yet. This way, people would have a better perspective of the relationships they are in,” explained Darius Chan, professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Hong Kong.
But how did the researchers come to such conclusions? Well, an experiment was conducted on two groups of Chinese students, already in a relationship, one with financially well-off people, the other with rather poor people. The findings of the study are, to say the least, interesting.
It appears from the study that wealthy men prioritize the physical beauty of their partners and would, therefore, be more interested in short-term relationships than participants with less money. "Indeed, in addition to the fact that having a lot of money gives you the means to seduce, rich men generally have very important social networks, so they are more likely to meet a woman who meets their criteria," explained Pascal Anger. in an interview with the Atlantico website. Poor men will rather tend to want to build long relationships with the women they meet, because they know that if the story ends, they will have fewer means and fewer opportunities to meet a new one. On the contrary, rich women have not changed their habits, nor increased their demands on their partner's physique. They seek, all social classes combined, long relationships and attach less importance to the beauty of their companion. “This comes from the fact that their deep nature distorts them less in relation to money issues. They are essentially looking for long relationships because, consciously or unconsciously, they are looking for security to have children,” continues Pascal Anger.
A second test was carried out, which consisted in observing the behavior of the students when they entered the classroom. This time, more men (whether rich or poor) went to sit next to someone they found physically attractive. A behavior less observed in women.
Although the study was conducted on a specific culture, Chan explains that he expects "the conclusions drawn from this study to be the same in different cultures, since the basic mechanisms of selection of friends or romantic relationships are are found to be rather similar from one culture to another”. We remain skeptical and we still want to believe that there is something other than money in life!
