The price of being single: An explorative study of the disadvantages of singlehood

Abstract

Being single that is, not having an intimate partner, is a common state in contemporary post-industrial societies. Singlehood has advantages but also disadvantages that the current research aimed to examine. More specifically, Study 1 employed qualitative research methods on a sample of 238 Greek-speaking participants, and identified 78 possible disadvantages of being single. Studies 2 and 3 employed quantitative research methods on a sample of 1115 (NStudy 1 = 592, NStudy 2 = 523) Greek-speaking participants, and classified these disadvantages into 10 distinct categories. Participants rated the “Lack of regular and safe sex,” the “Lack of tenderness and love,” and the “Lack of someone to motivate me to improve myself” to be the most important disadvantages of singlehood. Other important disadvantages included, the “Lack of support,” the “Negative emotions,” and the “Not having someone to do things together.” Moreover, we found that female participants rated the lack of support to be a more important disadvantage than male participants. We also found that, participants who had stronger social support, discounted the disadvantages of singlehood more than participants who had weaker social support. Additionally, participants who considered singlehood as more costly, exercised more mating effort than participants who considered it less costly.