Do arranged marriages work as well as love marriages?

First, a definition, because the words are often mixed up. An arranged marriage is one where the spouses are selected by a third party, most commonly their parents, sometimes with a marriage broker. Normally, the couple agree to it. A forced marriage is something else: one or both partners do not consent, and marriages without consent are condemned by the United Nations. The fundamental difference is free and full consent.

Do arranged marriages work as well as love marriages? Researchers have no clear winner. Small surveys comparing satisfaction have given mixed results: some find higher satisfaction in marriages the couple chose themselves, others find no significant difference, and some researchers question how small the samples are. The psychologist Frank Tallis has cited studies showing higher satisfaction among arranged marriages. Michael Rosenfeld argues the differences are empirically small, because many people choose partners similar in background, age and class, filters that parents would often have applied too.

Divorce rates look more decisive: the lowest in the world are in cultures with many arranged marriages, such as Hindus of India (3%) and Ultra-Orthodox Jews of Israel (7%). But others suggest the low rate may reflect how hard divorce is, and that social ostracism may lead people to stay in a dysfunctional marriage. A low divorce rate can mean stability, or it can mean exit is costly.

What about love itself? Epstein suggests that in many arranged marriages love emerges over time. Yet neither type offers any guarantees, and many arranged marriages end up cold and dysfunctional, with reports of abuse. The comparison is hard because the two types overlap, and because who chooses and what leaving costs differ so much from place to place.