For Immediate Release: March 13, 2003
Contact: press@decisionanalyst.com
Thoughts Of Love Are Often Crowded,
American Consumer Opinion Online Study Shows
Most Admit To Keeping Memories Of Past Loves Alive
Arlington, Texas—When our hearts begin to rule our
heads, the thoughts spinning round in our minds aren’t always focused just on
those sitting next to us in the candlelight, according to a nationwide study of
love and romance by American Consumer Opinion (www.ab.acop.com), a worldwide online network that
pays people for their opinions.
A recent survey of 744 men
and women, drawn from a balanced sample of the 3.5 million-strong American
Consumer Opinion® Online panels, found that 29% of U.S adults thought of former
lovers at least once a week, and the proportion increased to 66% if the
time-frame were expanded to include “every few months.”
Even if the focus were narrowed to “almost
every day,” still 16% of respondents admitted they could not keep their
thoughts from turning to old flames.
Gender appears to make little difference to how well we can keep our minds focused on the current love
of our lives.The difference in response rates between men and women who think of past loves almost daily is a mere 3
percentage points (17% of men, compared to 14% of women).
By contrast, age can play a much greater role in the heart, with a substantially greater proportion of young respondents admitting
to spending time recounting previous romances than those older. Whereas 20% of the young adults (ages 18 to
24) think about old loves “almost every day,” only 13% of the older respondents (those over the age of 55) think about past romances daily.
While our study does seem to show that time reduces the memories of previous loves, it certainly doesn’t eliminate them.
Methodology: For its 2003 “U.S. Romance Study,” a balanced sample of 744 participants was selected from American Consumer
Opinion® Online, one of the world’s largest Internet consumer opinion sources. This study’s margin of error was plus or minus 3 percent at a 90% confidence level.
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