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"Moving in together is a big step, but is it enough to feel truly committed? Sharing a bed and maybe even a mortgage seems like it would make most people feel pretty serious about being together. Is domestic bliss enough? But a new study has shown that couples who live together but aren&amp;#x27;t married don&amp;#x27;t feel the same levels of security as couples who are legally married. Replicating and expanding on an experiment from 2006, researchers studied the effect of holding hands with a partner among couples who lived together, married and not (and same-sex couples, who aren&amp;#x27;t legally allowed to marry in Virginia, where the study occurred). Participants were asked to lie in an fMRI scanner while watching a computer screen that signaled a potential threat of a shock to the ankle. While doing so, the participant was either holding the partner&amp;#x27;s hand, a stranger&amp;#x27;s hand, or alone. When married couples held hands, the person threatened with the shock was comparatively calmer than when alone or with a stranger. While it may seem natural that a person would be more comforted by a partner, the same effect didn&amp;#x27;t occur with opposite-sex couples who were merely cohabiting. It did, however, occur with same-sex couples who weren&amp;#x27;t married but considered themselves married, but again, same-sex marriage was not legally allowed in Virginia at the time&amp;amp;#8212;although a recent federal ruling could be changing that very shortly! Hence, researchers speculate that it&amp;#x27;s not the legal or religious recognition of marriage that makes people feel secure; it&amp;#x27;s thinking of your relationship as being committed to the fullest extent possible. (Though personally, I would argue that all people should be allowed the same extent of commitment by law.) What&amp;#x27;s enough for you? What&amp;#x27;s interesting about the research is that while many unmarried couples would probably say they are just as committed as married people, there&amp;#x27;s a physical reaction not happening in their brains. Of course, that&amp;#x27;s not meant to say that unmarried couples aren&amp;#x27;t serious about their relationships or committed to each other, or that all couples need to get married to be happy. But it is interesting that it seems to bring a sense of calm in at least one way that other relationships might not. Do you personally feel like you need marriage to feel fully committed in your relationship, or not?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2014/02/why-living-together-isnt-enoug>