By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
The belief about marriage is that the more partners a person dates, the higher the bar they set for their spouse-to-be, making it harder to find their "other half."
One recent survey shows that this myth is only partially true.
According to the survey, those who have dated seven to nine partners are the most positive about marriage while those who have not dated at all are the least positive.
Professor Choi In-cheol in the Department of Psychology at Seoul National University, together with Duo, a matchmaking company, conducted a survey on 975 unmarried people ㅡ 503 males and 472 females in their 20s and 30s ㅡ about their attitudes toward marriage.
Choi's survey says that those who have dated seven to nine people had the most positive attitude toward matrimony, scoring 59 on a 100-point scale.
Those who had more than 10 partners scored 58, while those with four to six partners totaled 56.
However, people who have not dated at all were least positive toward marriage. Their score was only 46.
"This shows that the number of dating partners is more or less in proportion to how positive an attitude people have toward marriage," Professor Choi said.
He also found that the more satisfied a person was with their life and their parents' marital life, the more positive they were toward marriage. More men than women believe that they can be happier after getting married and marriage will affect their life positively.
Men were more open to sex prior to marriage than women.
About 32 percent of males say it's okay to have sex after dating for a month, while 23 percent say three months is an appropriate time.
For women, 28 percent say they would want to have sex with their dating partners only after they decide to marry them with 17 percent saying it was okay to have sex after six months of dating.
Meanwhile, women are less open than men to getting married with partners who have been divorced.
"The low birthrate is becoming a national issue and our survey shows fundamental attitudes regarding marriage. The result will be helpful in devising policies to encourage marriage and childbirth," Choi said.