As far as Dr. Richard Slatcher's work goes, there are two types of people in the world.

We really find that there are two groups, relationship halves and have nuts,

and that's really delineated by how their relationships were doing going into the pandemic.

Slatcher teaches in the Department of Psychology at the University of Georgia.

For about a year, he's been running a research project with collaborators around the world

called Love in the Time of COVID.

He's found that people who started the pandemic with a romantic partner

are probably headed in the same direction they were a year ago.

So those couples who were really by and large satisfied with their relationships,

we actually see them becoming more satisfied over the pandemic

because they're able to spend a lot more time together.

Whereas not surprisingly, if your relationship was not great before the pandemic,

odds are it has not improved.

There's nothing so lonely as being stuck for months with someone that you don't feel very connected to.

So that's one group, the relationship halves.

The other group, people who went into the pandemic without a romantic partner.

They're getting their other social needs met primarily through existing close friends or family members.

They were really digging into their existing other kinds of close relationships

more than trying to start new romantic relationships.

The common thread here is that for so many people,

the pandemic has amplified whatever was already going on in their personal life.

And that's been harder on some than others.

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