A recent survey by independent pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed that more Filipinos than Americans believe in love at first sight, think they have experienced falling in love at first sight, and believe in one true love.
The Nov. 3-21, 2001 survey by the SWS was compared to the results of a Gallup Organization US poll for Valentine’s Day 2000 to arrive at the conclusion. Questions in the two surveys were phrased similarly.
Results showed that 72 percent of Filipinos believe in love at first sight, compared to 52 percent of Americans.
In the Philippines, more men (75 percent) than women (69 percent) believe in the notion. Gallup’s findings showed that 55 percent of men believe in love at first sight compared to 49 percent of women.
In terms of age, the belief of love at first sight is highest among Filipinos aged 35-44 and Americans aged 30-49.
It is interesting to note that more married Filipinos (74 percent) believe in the notion than single Filipinos (68 percent). Also, Filipinos from the social class E (76 percent) believe in the notion more than class ABC (68 percent) and class D (71 percent).
Surveys revealed that 64 percent of Filipinos have actually experienced falling in love at first sight, compared to only 40 percent of Americans.
Among Filipinos who did experience love at first sight, 92 percent said they had believed in the notion. In the US, among those who experienced love at first sight, only 69 percent said they believed in the notion.
There are more married Filipinos (67 percent) than single Filipinos (54 percent) who have experienced love at first sight.
The surveys showed that 84 percent of Filipinos believe that there is only one person in some part of the world they are destined to fall in love with, compared to only 74 percent of Americans.
In the Philippines, the belief is highest among individuals in the age bracket of 25-34. In the US, it is highest among older individuals over 65, perhaps because people in the age group are likely to have been married to the same person for many years.
The SWS survey also showed that more married Filipinos believe in one true love. The belief is also higher among Filipinos with less education.
The SWS national survey had 1,200 statistically representative adult respondents, while the results by the international think-thank and poll new service Gallup were based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected US sample of 1,018 adults, conducted Feb. 4-6, 2000.