The Science of Mating

Take our Are You a Good First Date?

Find a therapist near me

Survey trends point to a dating recession among 25-35 year olds in the U.S.

Skills, like knowing how to ask someone out, are at least partially responsible for the low dating rates.

Money is also a concern and viewed as necessary before dating.

For a skills-based problem, skills training could be a solution.

How do romantic relationships form? What is the process of moving from strangers to friends to a couple to a committed partnership? From a traditional lens, most people chart the path through a period of dating. Or, at least, they used to.

Research by the Institute of Family Studies suggests that the United States has entered a significant dating recession (Hawkins and colleagues, 2026). No longer are single people dating, and this is not for lack of interest.

Dating Is an Appealing Practice

Dating refers to an intentional "get to know you" period in which two people who are attracted to each other choose to repeatedly spend time alone together. For some, dating is casual, needs not be exclusive, and includes little talk about the future. For others, it's a chance to assess compatibility, shared life goals, and the relationship's long-term potential. Over time, commitment typically escalates among exclusive dating partners, leading to a committed relationship such as marriage.

In other words, dating is a path toward a long-term relationship.

Americans love the idea of dating. Recent research suggests that 83 percent of women and 74 percent of men (from a nationally representative sample of 22-35 year olds) strongly endorse the practice of dating as a pathway to entering a long-term committed romantic relationship (Hawkins and colleagues, 2026). Approximately the same........

© Psychology Today