The Speed of Romantic Relationship Formation: Testing Life-History and Self-Construal Explanations on the 'Timing' of Announcing Commitment

Abstract

People differ in how soon they announce commitment in long-term relationships (e.g., to say “I love you”), but few studies have examined the cause of this individual difference. Life-history (LH) theory predicts that people who adopt a faster LH strategy, relative to others, will be inclined to announce commitment sooner because faster LH individuals tend to reproduce earlier. At the same time, self-construal theory predicts that people who adopt an independent self-construal will be inclined to announce commitment sooner because this type of self-construal has been linked to the tendency to live a fast-paced life and make riskier decisions. To test these two explanations, a survey study was conducted where American participants completed measures on LH strategies, self-construal, and the timing of events which signal an announcement of commitment. Results indicated no relationship between an individual’s life history strategy and the timing of announcing commitment, and contradictory results with the predictions made with self-construal and the timing of announcing commitment.