Does “Love Is Blind” Work?
Spoiler Alert: No
5/25/20262 min read
Confession: I have watched - or semi-watched while scrolling - almost all of Love is Blind. I'm into season 10. While Wikipedia (among others) tracks the current status of participants per season, I haven't seen any look at the aggregate stats. The series has been on since early 2020, so almost exactly 6 years as of this note.
The high-concept premise is cute. They pick people who are anywhere between conventionally attractive all the way to beautiful, with a few exceptions being a a bit heavy or shorter. They talk to each other for 3(?) weeks in separate rooms with opaque barriers. Some people propose, some accept. Then they meet and they're off to a beach locale together, followed by three weeks back in the city the candidates are from. Then weddings - or not. It's a campy set-up with the producers arranging for all kinds of drama, ideally at the altar.
I would definitely watch a version where half the people are not at all attractive, and then watch the fireworks when people who have accepted proposals get to see each other.
It occurred to me that this is essentially an arranged marriage, with people doing the arranging themselves, but making a supposedly lifetime commitment based on little information. Arranged marriages work all over the world, but the expectations are well known - you aren't finding a soulmate, you are finding a partner in a transaction that does not need to include fulfillment or love. Since in the USA we have a dedication to individuality, the participants expect to find the love of their life and are generally disappointed.
Without further ado, here's the data (and a link to my spreadsheet):
About 85% of accepted marriage proposals actually happen. In Love Is Blind, 18% of accepted proposals end up in a marriage. A near-total fail right there. I see it as people pressuring themselves to accept a proposal that they aren't really ready for, that their proposal/acceptance is not a commitment yet, but a way to give themselves more time to find out.
Of the 72% of LiB accepted proposals that fall apart, a bit more than half break up before the wedding, and 46% break up at the altar. Call me cynical, but I imagine the producers work hard to introduce doubt in those final days and encourage the participants to stick together up to the last minute, at which point they tell the useful idiots to follow their hearts.
The percentage of people whose marriage lasts for 6 years is about 78%. The percentage of LiB marrieds who last anywhere between 0 and 6 years is 50% (counting all marriages in all seasons). Just 14% of accepted proposals have resulted in lasting marriages! To the extent you can call a marriage lasting a few months all the way to six years a lasting marriage. A terrible record all over, just total crap. So there it is - the experiment fails over and over again.
I enjoyed season 9, because the producers got a comeuppance - nobody got married. I would definitely watch a version where half the people are not at all attractive, and then watch the fireworks when people who have accepted proposals get to see each other.
I tell myself I did this for the science, that having satisfied my numerical curiosity I can be done. Like, I could be reading a book. We'll see.
