homeWelcome, sign in or click here to subscribe.login
     


 

 

Weekend


Subscriber content preview

April 16, 2004

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. Worldwide, where are the romantic lovers?

    A. Everywhere! answer Elaine Hatfield and Richard Rapson in "Love & Sex: Cross-Cultural Perspectives." The old stereotype that amour flowers only in individualist cultures ignores reality. Survey samplings: When ethnic- American college students were asked if they'd ever been in love, 95 percent of Anglo Americans said yes, as did 86 percent of Mexican Americans, 72 percent of Chinese Americans. And Elaine Hatfield's University of Hawaii students -- their grandparents, parents, and they themselves coming from China, Europe or the Pacific Islands, including the Philippines, Hawaii, Samoa, Guam, Tonga, Tahiti and Fiji -- all seemed vulnerable to that not-so-Western "many-splendored thing." "If anything, it was the Pacific Islanders who were the real romantics."


     
    . . .


    To read this story in full login or purchase a subscription.



    Previous columns:


    
    Email or user name:
    Password:
     
    Forgot password? Click here.