Single Women Are Happier Than Single Men — According to Science

A new study says that heterosexual relationships lead to "more rewards for men and more costs for women"

Single women are happier than single men — and aren’t in a rush to partner up any time soon.

“On average, women reported higher overall well-being including higher relationship status satisfaction, higher life satisfaction, higher sexual satisfaction as well as a lower desire for a partner,” a study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science found.

“One common stereotype is that single women are unattractive and miserable ‘spinsters’ while single men are labeled as romantically desired ‘bachelors,’ ” wrote University of Toronto psychologists Elaine Hoan and Geoff MacDonald, who analyzed data from nearly 6,000 mostly heterosexual, single people for their study.

However, they wrote that their findings “appear to run counter to existing stereotypes regarding women as the uniquely unhappy gender in singlehood.” 

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One possible reason for women being happier, the study says, is that “women have stronger social support beyond romantic relationships.”

The study also suggests that as women become more financially independent, “one traditional advantage for women in partnering with men — income — is dissipating.”

That leaves women to consider the other factors that may impact satisfaction within a relationship, which the study notes are “inequities within heterosexual relationships, including inequitable divisions of household labor and the deprioritization of women’s sexual pleasure.”

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These historically “lead to more rewards for men and more costs for women in committed heterosexual partnerships,” the study says. 

The study found that men are unhappier when they are single — which the researchers note “may be an accurate recognition that they have more to gain from partnering than do single women.”

Related: Diane Keaton on Being Happily Single at 77 and Why It's 'Highly Unlikely' She'll Date Again

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The study notes that while not all single men are incels — the term for involuntary celibates, which the study describes as “a misogynistic extremist group who blame women for their failed romantic and sexual pursuits” — they “report lower well-being generally,” and further research is warranted.

“Incel researchers could extend their work to include the experiences of single men more broadly as the story of unhappy single men appears to reach well beyond incels,” the researchers note.

But overall, the study concludes that “these findings suggest that women are, on average, happier in singlehood than men.”