Offline vs. Online Dating: Which Couples Are Happier, According to Science?
Wednesday, August 20, 2025.
Once upon a time, people fell in love at neighborhood barbecues, in classrooms, or while both reaching for the last avocado at the market.
Now? We swipe right, left, and occasionally into oblivion. Online dating has become the dominant way people connect.
But a recent international study suggests something surprising: couples who met offline are, on average, a little happier and more committed.
Not wildly happier. Just a little.
Enough to make researchers raise an eyebrow, but not enough to justify panic-deleting your dating apps.
Why Offline Still Holds an Edge
The study, led by Marta Kowal and colleagues (2025), surveyed more than 6,600 people in relationships across 50 countries.
Here’s the big take-away: couples who met face-to-face — through friends, work, or pure chance — reported higher satisfaction and stronger feelings of intimacy, passion, and especially commitment.
Why might that be?
Meeting offline often comes with built-in advantages: shared networks, common values, mutual friends. Couples therapists call this homogamy — similarity between partners — and research shows it’s linked to stability.
Online couples, by contrast, are famously more likely to come from different backgrounds. That’s not always bad, but it can sometimes be harder to navigate.
The Trouble With Infinite Choice
Online dating gives us endless possibilities, but endless choice isn’t always liberating.
One classic experiment found that shoppers offered 24 jam flavors were less likely to buy than those offered just six (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000). Too many options lead to hesitation, second-guessing, and a nagging sense you could’ve done better.
On dating apps, the same logic applies.
Swipe culture encourages comparison shopping for people, which can quietly chip away at commitment. Add in the fact that online profiles are often “polished” versions of reality, and disappointment can creep in when the real person doesn’t match the digital one.
Other Studies Tell a Different Story
Here’s where things get messy. Not all research agrees with Kowal’s findings.
A 2013 study found online couples actually reported higher marital satisfaction and lower divorce rates. (That one was funded by eHarmony, which raised eyebrows.)
Stanford research in 2019 showed online dating had become the number-one way Americans meet, without signs of weaker relationships.
A 2024 study in Social Sciences concluded online and offline couples were about equally strong.
And just this year, a University of Stirling study doubled down on Kowal’s conclusion: online couples reported lower intimacy and satisfaction.
Depending on which study you read, online dating is either the best thing that’s ever happened to romance — or a harbinger of it’s slow decline.
What Really Matters in the Long Run
The clearest takeaway is that where you meet matters less than what you do afterward.
Offline couples may start with a stronger foundation, but long-term satisfaction comes down to daily maintenance: kindness, honesty, and knowing how to fight without destroying each other.
John Gottman’s decades of research on marital stability show that simple things — turning toward your partner, repairing after conflict, showing appreciation — predict longevity far more than a meet-cute origin story.
So, yes, offline couples score slightly higher in satisfaction.
But after ten years of bills, in-laws, and slow Wi-Fi, no one gives a shit whether you first met in a bar or on Bumble.
My more salient question is: do you still laugh together while you’re loading the dishwasher?
Be well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.
REFERENCES:
Cacioppo, J. T., Cacioppo, S., Gonzaga, G. C., Ogburn, E. L., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2013). Marital satisfaction and break‐ups differ across on‐line and off‐line meeting venues. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(25), 10135–10140. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1222447110
Canary, D. J., & Stafford, L. (1992). Relational maintenance strategies and equity in marriage. Communication Monographs, 59(3), 243–267. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637759209376268
Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995–1006. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.6.995
Kowal, M., Sorokowski, P., Bode, A., Misiak, M., Malecki, W. P., Sorokowska, A., & Roberts, S. C. (2025). Meeting partners online is related to lower relationship satisfaction and love: Data from 50 countries. Telematics and Informatics, 91, 102232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2025.102232
Langlais, M. (2024). Relationship satisfaction and stability in online vs. in-person dating contexts. Social Sciences, 13(11), 512. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13110512
Rosenfeld, M. J., Thomas, R. J., & Hausen, S. (2019). Disintermediating your friends: How online dating in the United States displaces other ways of meeting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(36), 17753–17758. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1908630116
University of Stirling. (2025, August 11). Couples who meet online are less happy in love, according to new study. Retrieved from https://www.stir.ac.uk/news/2025/08/couples-who-meet-online-are-less-happy-in-love-according-to-new-study/