The present study is an attempt to determine whether or not volunteers for marital research differ from nonvolunteers, and, if so, to profile the characteristics of each. A random sample was drawn from the community of Boulder, Colorado, and respondents were interviewed in their homes. At the time of the initial interview, details of the study of marital counseling were described to the respondents, and they were asked to volunteer for the study. Subjects were classified into three groups: (1) refusals (2) those who verbally agreed to participate but failed to do so, and (3) those who volunteered and actually participated. The latter group, the volunteer participants, tended to have dated longer before marriage, to be from families of origin with higher socioeconomic status, to have larger incomes, and to have attained a higher level of education than the volunteer nonparticipants. Many of the same social class related variables distinguished refusals from volunteers. In general, it seemed that both volunteering for such research and actually paricipating was related to a more cautious courtship pattern and to an upper-middle-class background.