Extensive research will answer how it is with love in the time of Covid

17. 6. 2021
Researchers from 70 countries will focus on research in the field of love and attraction. They are interested in new trends that may have been accelerated by isolation during a pandemic, such as remote dating and the like. According to Martin Pírek from the Institute of Lifelong Learning at Mendel University in Brno, the results of international comparisons of these phenomena will also be interesting.

The research is unique both in its scope and in its timing during the ongoing or receding Covid-19 pandemic. It focuses on partnerships, love and partner, and physical attraction, including the factors that affect them.

“The pandemic has certainly affected social and partnership relations and will continue to do so in the future,” says Pírko. Similar research in the Czech Republic and abroad has taken place in the past. Based on the comparison with them, it will be possible to deduce certain changes in trends, such as the increasing share of distance dating.

Anyone can participate in the research using an online questionnaire. It will take people 20-30 minutes to complete it. Due to the international nature of the research group, the questionnaire is quite diverse and contains, for example, examples of various dances, which in some cases can be perceived with a sexual subtext.

“It would probably not be entirely correct to reveal what we specifically expect that we can find out in this regard because we do not want to influence potential participants. In any case, we hope that thanks to its diversity, potential respondents will enjoy filling in more than with other similar questionnaires,” said Pírko.

The questionnaire also includes questions about infidelity. “We distinguish two main types of infidelity. Physical, that is, what we commonly imagine under infidelity, and also the so-called emotional infidelity, which takes place purely on the emotional level and whose close equivalent in Czech is called platonic love. Previous research shows that there are differences between men and women in the inclinations and tolerances of these two types of infidelity. In addition, in this research, we relate infidelity to the duration of the partnership,” said the scientist.

Questionnaires can now be completed by people around the world. 47,000 people have already participated in the research in this way. In the Czech Republic, experts so far have data from 600 people. Data collection ends on July 31, 2021.

Contact for more information: Mgr. Martin Pírko, tel: 723 318 094, email: martin.pirko@mendelu.cz, Department of Social Sciences (ICV)

Link to questionnaire

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