Single Ladies, Don't Despair: Men Do Want to Commit

Feb. 3, 2011 — -- The largest and most comprehensive study of singles in the United States has been released just in time for Valentine's Day, and the surprising results dispel long-held beliefs about singles, according to Match.com which commissioned the survey, entitled "Single in America."

The study included 5,200 single men and women between the ages of 21 and 65.

"[The study] is based on the [U.S.] Census Bureau. We have the right number of people from each region, right number of men, right number of women, age groups from 21 to 65 plus," Dr. Helen Fisher, a cultural anthropologist, told ABC News.

Fisher helped conduct the survey in conjunction with the Institute of Evolutionary Studies at Binghamton University.

"We've known for a long time that we're seeing growing economic equality between the sexes, but it was surprising to me that men are adopting some of the attitudes that we've long attributed to women, and women are adopting the attitudes that we've long attributed to men," said Fisher, who is the chief scientific advisor to Chemistry.com, a division of Match.com.

Men are stereotyped as being less interested in settling down and having children than women, but the study shows otherwise.

"Men in just about every cohort are just as eager to marry or more eager to marry as women are. It's not true that they don't want to commit. Particularly young men, age 21 to 34, are more eager to marry than women are. Throughout every single cohort, men are more eager to have children than women are."

According to the study, 51% of men and 46% of women want to have children between the ages of 21 and 34, which are peak reproductive years.

"[Men] also fall in love faster, they're more likely to bring a woman home to introduce her to their parents sooner, they're more likely to marry a woman who's got everything they're looking for in a partner but they're not sexually attracted to that person, than a woman is," said Fisher.

The study found that 54% of men say they have experienced love at first sight, compared to 41% of women.