Most of us are brought up to assume that love is something that just happens, but there are 15.7 million single adults in the UK*, so why are we not finding true love? Do modern dating practices mean that marriage and monogamy have had their day? Have we forgotten how to fall in love?
Married At First Sight is a groundbreaking series which asks if science can help create a successful relationship and if the act of marriage helps create a psychological bond that leads to true and enduring love.
Chosen from an initial pool of more than 1 500 applicants, individuals each seeking long-term love have been carefully assessed by a panel of experts in the fields of psychology, social and evolutionary anthropology, and theology.
Until the 18th century, arranged marriages were common but will the combined professional experience of these experts really create the perfect match? Can theories of evolution, social development, attachment and personality really identify a partner better suited to us than we could find ourselves?
Three couples will find out – in an arranged marriage made by science.
Once matched by the experts, the compatible couples will prepare to enter into a legally binding marriage with a stranger – meeting for the first time at their own wedding, where they’ll declare “I do”.
Or will they?
As the day draws closer, will nerves get the better of each bride and groom before they meet at the altar?
For those who do decide to become legally wed, the cameras will follow the couples during the first tentative weeks of their relationship as they share their honeymoon and then their daily lives with a stranger.
After five weeks the couples will decide if they wish to stay together as husband and wife, or walk away from a marriage that theoretically could provide them with a soul mate and the long-lasting happiness they strongly desire.
Ultimately the show will ask if science can help us fall in love.
In this first series of Married At First Sight, after a year of rigorous testing and measuring, the panel of experts decide who will marry whom.
But meeting on the day of your wedding is full of social and psychological complexities. Will the couples even fancy each other?
After a busy day, the newly-weds get some time alone before setting off on honeymoon.
Five weeks later, will they decide to stay married?
* Married at First Sight Series 1 airs every Sunday at 8.30pm on BBC Lifestyle channel 174 on DStv.