Intimacy, passion, and commitment in Chinese and US American romantic relationships

The purpose of the study was to examine the triangular theory of love in China and the United States. It was predicted that intimacy, passion, and commitment would increase in both cultures as the relationship becomes more serious. It was also predicted that intimacy and passion would be higher in romantic relationships in the US than in China, and that commitment would be higher in China than in the US. Data were collected from 90 Chinese romantic couples in China and 77 American romantic couples in the United States. Multivariate analysis of variance using summation scores revealed that commitment, passion, and intimacy increased as a romantic relationship became more serious. Passion was significantly higher in US American couples than in Chinese couples, but the amount of intimacy and commitment did not vary cross-culturally (using both summation and dispersion scores). # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.