A new study out of Chapman University in California says that nearly two-thirds of men believe women should contribute to dating expenses.
The paper — titled “Who Pays for Dates?” — was based on survey data from 17,000 heterosexual and unmarried participants, 4,000 of whom provided written responses.
The study found that 64% of the men surveyed believe that women should pay their own way on dates, with 44% admitting that they would stop dating a woman who never paid.
Yet even though the majority of men believe women should be going Dutch, 84% of the male respondents said that they pay for most of the dating expenses.
The women surveyed seemed more conflicted. While 57% of women said they offer to pay on dates, 39% confessed that they secretly hoped the man would still pay.
But the conventions of dating can only last so long. As relationships progress, 40% of both men and women say that they begin to at least partially share dating expenses within the first month and 83% of women reported sharing expenses by six months of dating.
Researchers report that the same basic patterns were seen regardless of daters’ ages, income, or education.
