If You Want To Find Someone To Commit To You, Science Says Live In These States
There are plenty of factors to consider when searching for that perfect someone, but the last thing on my mind was how much my current residence influences the strength of my relationships.
I guess I've been looking for love in all the wrong places.
A new study published in the Journal of Research and Personality has concluded which states across the country make for the best and worst places to find a partner.
If you're in pursuit of some smoking hot romance, make your way to Mississippi, Utah or Wisconsin as soon as possible, as those topped the rankings of spots where people are more likely to commit.
Where else? Well, each of the 127,070 people involved in the study completed a survey fit with questions to help determine their "attachment-related anxiety," focusing on things like how secure you felt in your partnership, and "attachment avoidance," honing in on if you were inclined to be a bit more distant to your partner.
Overall, researchers suggest the lower the state scored in both attachment-related anxiety and attachment avoidance, the better its people are at committing to a healthy relationship.
LiveScience reported the complete list of every state and their respective scores. Check it out:
In a slightly comical turn of events, researcher and Michigan State University professor Bill Chopik found that these results connected directly with their unique "stereotypes."
"When I think of New York, I think of the anxious Woody Allen type, and New York had one of the highest scores for attachment anxiety," Chopik said in a statement. "California, on the other hand, seems like a romantic place with beautiful sunsets, oceans and warm weather. And Utah residents are known to be very nice, warm and generous, which many people attribute to the large Mormon population."
Both California and Utah landed in the top 10 places to head to if you're looking for commitment, while New York... was the ninth worst overall.
Maybe that concrete jungle is just too tough to crack?
One of the researchers' most stunning takeaways from all this work was its specific findings on attachment-related anxiety: Even though people in high attachment-related anxiety states are indeed filled with more anxiety, commitment seems to be much more prominent there, with a high number of married anxious couples filling the populations.
Since anxiety-ridden states seemed to have an abundance of husbands and wives, Bill Chopik concluded that once those prone to feeling uneasy find a partner, they're more inclined to never let 'em out of their sight.
"Anxiously attached people might be more quick to settle down and find — and stick with — their partner," he told Broadly. "In general, I think anxiety is bad for relationships, but sometimes maybe it's good for keeping a partner close, [though] it comes with some clingy-ness.
Chopik goes on to say how useful this information is when concluding if you're set up in a location that will benefit your relationship. Though people should be making the most of their surroundings, studies such as this can definitely impact your thought process.
I never actually considered how my New York lifestyle correlated with how successful I was in finding a committed relationship. While I do think the findings are interesting, I still wouldn't let it uproot me and send me running to the other side of the country.
If I stay in the Big Apple, I just have to try a little harder.
Laziness isn't an attractive quality anyway.
Citations: The Best States for Finding a Healthy Relationship, According to a New Study (Broadly), Ranking Romance: Here Are the Best (and Worst) States for Love (LiveScience)
