People in long distance relationships form stronger bonds than people in face-to-face ones because they disclose more personal information about themselves to their partners.
Not very many people believe long distance relationships work. However, over the years, long distance relationships have become increasingly common, with more young adults opting for such kind of relationships. According to statistics, three million married couples in the U.S. live apart; 25- 50% college students are currently in long-distance relationships and up to 75% of them have engaged in such a relationship at some point
A new study conducted by researchers from City University of Hong Kong and Cornell University found that stronger bonds may be one of the reasons behind the growing popularity of such relationships.
For the research, both long distance and geographically close couples were asked to report their daily interactions over different media: face-to-face, phone calls, video chat, texting, instant messenger, and email. They were also asked to report how much they disclosed about themselves to their partner and how intimate they felt over a week.
Researchers observed that couples in long distance relationships felt more intimate with their partners for two reasons. The first one was that they disclosed more about themselves and secondly, they idealized their partners' behaviors.
Though very few studies have been conducted on long distance relationships, many of them conclude that such relationships are not as problematic as people believe them to be. In fact, some studies even suggest that long distance relationships are better in quality.
"Indeed, our culture, emphasizes being together physically and frequent face-to-face contact for close relationships, but long-distance relationships clearly stand against all these values. People don't have to be so pessimistic about long-distance romance," said Crystal Jiang from City University of Hong Kong in a press release. "The long-distance couples try harder than geographically close couples in communicating affection and intimacy, and their efforts do pay back."
