Two main ways to enter a marriage are through free choice and through an arrangement between families, known as an arranged marriage. In this study, we compared differences in three dimensions of love (Intimacy, Passion, and Commitment) between spouses in love-based marriages and arranged marriages among five non-Western societies: Bhotiya from the Himalayas, Igbo from Nigeria, Kimeru from Kenya, Meru from Tanzania, and Tsimane’ from Bolivia. When considering all data gathered from the five cultures, free choice and arranged marriages did not differ significantly in average love scores. However, within cultures, some differences did emerge between free choice and arranged marriages, such as spouses from free choice marriages from Bhotiya and Tsimane’ culture showing higher levels of Intimacy than those from arranged marriages. However, in the Bhotiya, this difference was only evident in marriages lasting longer than 10 years. Moreover, spouses from free choice marriages from Bhotiya reported higher levels of passion, while spouses from free choice marriages from Tsimane’ reported higher levels of commitment than individuals from arranged marriages. Conversely, wives from arranged marriages from Meru culture from Tanzania reported higher levels of Intimacy and Passion as compared to wives from free choice marriages. In Kimeru and Igbo, no significant differences were found. These results contribute to the growing body of literature on the relationship between culture, love, and marriage. Our data also challenge the Western perception that arranged marriages lack love.

进入婚姻的两种主要方式是通过自由选择和通过家庭之间的安排，称为包办婚姻。在这项研究中，我们比较了五个非西方社会中基于爱情的婚姻和包办婚姻中配偶之间爱情三个维度（亲密、激情和承诺）的差异：喜马拉雅山的 Bhotiya、尼日利亚的 Igbo、肯尼亚的 Kimeru、坦桑尼亚的 Meru 和玻利维亚的 Tsimane'。当考虑从五种文化收集的所有数据时，自由选择和包办婚姻的平均爱情得分没有显着差异。然而，在文化内部，自由选择婚姻和包办婚姻之间确实出现了一些差异，例如来自 Bhotiya 和 Tsimane' 文化的自由选择婚姻的配偶比来自包办婚姻的配偶表现出更高水平的亲密关系。然而，在 Bhotiya 中，这种差异仅在持续超过 10 年的婚姻中才明显。此外，来自 Bhotiya 的自由选择婚姻的配偶报告了更高的激情水平，而来自 Tsimane' 的自由选择婚姻的配偶报告了比来自包办婚姻的个人更高的承诺水平。相反，与自由选择婚姻的妻子相比，来自坦桑尼亚梅鲁文化的包办婚姻的妻子报告了更高水平的亲密和激情。在 Kimeru 和 Igbo 中，未发现显著差异。这些结果有助于越来越多的关于文化、爱情和婚姻之间关系的文献。我们的数据还挑战了西方人认为包办婚姻缺乏爱的看法。