Helen Fisher, PhD

Long Engagement

Stalling?   Cold feet?   Why buy the cow if you’re already got the milk?  Many see a long engagement as an irritating lack of commitment—stemming from the natural hope to see relatives reproduce and spread their mutual DNA.  But the world will see a lot more long engagements.  In the old days, when marriage was a person’s passage to adulthood and prior virginity was a must, just about everybody wed—young and fast.   But these days, when divorce rates are high, infidelity is rampant, many have their children later and we are living longer, more couples figure: “why rush; let’s build a strong partnership before we wed.”  Long engagements are just another part of the current worldwide Marriage Revolution.