The Best States for Romance (The List)

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Two researchers looked at a slew of demographic and survey data to come up with rankings for all U.S. states regarding positive relationships. Their findings, detailed online Dec. 21 in the Journal of Research in Personality, revealed that Virginia, for instance, may not be for lovers, as its state slogan would suggest.

The survey data was based on information from 127,070 adults who answered questions about fear of abandonment (attachment anxiety) and discomfort with intimacy, called attachment avoidance. Participants answered questions on a 7-point scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree), such as "I don't feel comfortable opening up to romantic partners," (avoidance); and "I often worry that my partner doesn't really love me," (anxiety). 

The lower the overall score, the better those people are likely to fare in relationships, the researchers suggested. [Read the full story on the survey]

Here's a table of the overall rankings, from best to worst:

Jeanna Bryner
Managing editor, Scientific American

Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.