“A Story and a Ring”: Audience Judgments about Engagement Proposals

Previous research found that engagement proposals are constructed using a traditional proposal script because it sends a message about the strength of the relationship. This paper examined whether others do indeed evaluate relationship strength on the basis of a proposal’s conformity to a traditional script. We asked 2,174 U.S. Midwestern university students to evaluate the relationship strength of a hypothetical couple on the basis of traditional and non-traditional proposal elements. We also examined whether sex, age, and religiosity affected these evaluations. In general, relationships were evaluated as stronger when they conformed to a traditional proposal script. Sex and age did not affect ratings of the relationship. Although religiosity affected some ratings of relationship strength, the overall pattern was inconclusive.