London - It may seem an outdated practice, but a TV programme has set out to show that arranged marriage works.
Makers of the programme, which pairs strangers as spouses, believe the relationships are “hundreds of times more likely” to succeed than conventional unions. But critics accuse them of “profoundly misunderstanding” commitment.
Married At First Sight, which starts on in Britain on Channel 4 on July 9, assessed 1 500 volunteers before sending three couples down the aisle. Those who wed must live as husband and wife for five weeks before choosing to stay together or divorce.
Emma Rathbone, 32, married fellow contestant James Ord-Hume. “I don’t know what the future holds but I haven’t done this for a laugh… I believed in the experts matching us,” she told Fabulous magazine.
The final couples were a 70 percent match or better, in a series of tests. Therapist Jo Coker quizzed them on past relationships and attitudes to sex. They made short films of their day-to-day lives for Dr Andrew Irving, an anthropologist at Manchester University. Dr Anna Machin, an evolutionary anthropologist, took DNA samples and measurements to work out their genetic traits.
Participants discussed their understanding of marriage with the Rev Nick Devenish, a Church of England priest in the Lake District. Finally, Dr Mark Coulson, pyschology professor at Middlesex University, set an IQ test and 324 profiling questions. He said: “This particular approach will pick a partner for you better than you can, better than your friends and family can, certainly better than dating websites can.
“You can imagine a system where you can access the data…before you decide to take it further [with a partner]…and see what your compatibility score is.”
But the Marriage Foundation’s Harry Benson said: “I think the originators of this programme profoundly misunderstand the nature of commitment…?his is a ‘see how it goes’ kind of arrangement.”
Daily Mail
* Married At First Sight and the spin-off series Married At First Sight: The First Year can be seen in South Africa on DStv's Lifetime Channel