Human beings are enamored with love. One cannot listen to music, watch television, open social media, or make it through the workday without being inundated with references to romantic partnerships. And the numbers show it.
Back in 2018, researchers studied the lyrical content in U.S. top-40 songs from 1960 to 2010. They found that two-thirds (a supermajority) of the lyrics referred to relationships and love. Another 29 percent mentioned sexual desire.1 A different study of the Top 50 hits from even-numbered years between 1960 to 2008 showed the word love appeared in over half the songs. Three quarters of the songs were about dating in general.2
Over at the box office, more than eight out of ten movies released between 1950 and 2006 featured sexual content.3 Globally, the romance film and television show market was valued at $30 billion in 2023; that number is expected to balloon to $47 billion by 2032.4 Even in the other genres, almost every picture features a kiss.
Moving onto print, romance novels make up the highest earning fiction genre; they generate over a billion dollars in revenue every year.5 Women represent the overwhelming majority of love story readers (82 percent).6
But it’s not like our love affair with love affairs is all hunky dory. As a species, we absolutely stink at romance.
Just in the United States, roughly half of people in married relationships cheat at least once, with affairs lasting an average of two years. Things don’t get better overseas: infidelity rates hit the forties in several European countries, including Denmark (46 percent), Germany, and Italy (both 45 percent). If you are married in Thailand, expect to be cheated on: over half of married people admit to having been unfaithful at least once during their marriage.7
How about when relationships end altogether? Forty-one percent of first marriages end in divorce. When people try their hand at marriage again, they fail 60 percent of the time. That figure jumps to 73 percent when people take a third bite at the marital apple.8 Non-married couples don’t fare all that well either — just over half of first-time cohabiting couples break up within six years of moving in together.9
And sometimes, romance can’t even get off the ground. Women seemingly prefer fictional men on the big screen to the flesh-and-blood men in real life. Back in 2024, it became popular for women to suggest that when wandering alone in the forest, they would rather encounter a bear than cross paths with a man. A CNBC piece in 2018 cited the findings from a study called “Reaching the Modern Independent Woman.” In it, we learned that single women between ages 30 and 45 prioritize living alone, establishing a career, and financial security over getting married and having children.10
Then there are men, who would rather sing about women than actually talk to them. Fifty-three percent of guys who are single claim their fear of being creepy reduces their likelihood of interacting with women.11 In 2023, results from a poll run by psychologist Andew Thomas illustrated that 59 percent of men aged 18 to 25 had not approached a woman in the past year — 45 percent had never done so.12 Women assert that they would like to be approached more often, but 82 percent report being subjected to creepy behavior sometimes, often, or constantly.13 Put simply, men and women are at loggerheads.
Love is in the air…all the time. It’s also on the airwaves. And in books. And in every other medium. Given our insatiable desire for Cupid’s arrow, you would think we might hold it dear when it’s shot our way. However, that is not the case. Instead of being committed to love, it appears as though we would rather call love late at night and hang up.
Citations:
1. Christenson, P. G., de Haan-Rietdijk, S., Roberts, D. F., & ter Bogt, T. F. M. (2018). What has America been singing about? trends in themes in the U.S. top-40 songs: 1960–2010. Psychology of Music, 47(2), 194–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735617748205
2. Smiler, A. P., Shewmaker, J. W., & Hearon, B. (2017). From “I want to hold your hand” to “promiscuous”: Sexual stereotypes in popular music lyrics, 1960–2008. Sexuality & Culture, 21(4), 1083–1105. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-017-9437-7
3. Roach, E. (2012, August 10). Study: 85 percent of films have sexual content. Baptist Press. https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/study-85-percent-of-films-have-sexual-content/
4. Patel , D. (n.d.). Romance film and TV show market report: Global forecast from 2025 to 2033. Report | Global Forecast From 2025 To 2033. https://dataintelo.com/report/global-romance-film-and-tv-show-market
5. Bhowmik, A. (2023, December 26). Era of Romance: Exploring the unprecedented boom in the popularity of romance novels – The national herald. The National Herald . https://www.thenationalherald.com/era-of-romance-exploring-the-unprecedented-boom-in-the-popularity-of-romance-novels/
6. About the romance genre. Romance Writers of America . (n.d.). https://www.rwa.org/the-romance-genre
7. Infidelity rates by country 2025. World Population Review. (2025, December 5). https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/infidelity-rates-by-country
8. Austin, D. (2024, October 2). Divorce rates are trickier to pin down than you may think. Here’s why. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2024/09/05/marriage-divorce-rate/74899214007/
9. Wilcox, B., & ElHage , A. (2023, April 27). Cohabitation doesn’t help your odds of marital success. Institute for Family Studies. https://ifstudies.org/blog/cohabitation-doesnt-help-your-odds-of-marital-success
10. Berger, S. (2018, June 27). Building a career is more of a priority than having kids, say single American women. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/25/study-single-american-women-say-career-is-priority-over-having-kids.html
11. Travers , M., & Anderson, B. (2022, September 24). 9 things that can make a man seem creepy. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ie/blog/social-instincts/202209/9-things-that-can-make-a-man-seem-creepy
12. Loneliness epidemic: Why aren’t men approaching women? SALIENTS. (n.d.). https://salients.co/blogs/codex/why-arent-men-approaching-women-loneliness-epidemic?srsltid=AfmBOooZ9OSh7RpPkdPbHe88M8qR17JFECJ-05khJGheEaUhNx_mq2MI
13. Travers , M., & Anderson, B. (2022, September 24). 9 things that can make a man seem creepy. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ie/blog/social-instincts/202209/9-things-that-can-make-a-man-seem-creepy