Study: Love seekers = big spenders

A woman's love life greatly influences her spending habits, a new study asserts.

Women who are solo and not seeking a boyfriend tend to be thrifty while women looking for love are more inclined to spend money on new shoes and therapy, according to one of a proliferating multitude of studies and surveys pegged to Valentine's Day.

"A professor must have a theory as a dog must have fleas," the late journalist H.L. Mencken once remarked - and a pollster must have a Valentine's Day research project, he might have added.

The survey about how romance affects women's spending habits was sponsored by the woman's magazine Tango, the global media agency network Carat USA, and the Internet dating service Yahoo! Personals.

The survey divides women into categories.

One is the "independent single and not looking" category; women in this group spend 30 percent less than average on clothing, accessories, cosmetics, and home, the survey said.

Women in the "single and looking" category are open to all ways of meeting new people, "not just dating," the report said, and they spend 17 percent more than average on shoes.

Women in the "nonexclusive dating" category, meanwhile, are two times more likely to seek therapy and 56 percent more likely to get pampered at a spa, the report said. (Entrepreneurs, take note: A venue that combines hot tubs and psychiatrists might be more popular on Valentine's Day than a dozen roses and a box of chocolates put together.)

As for married women, they seek therapy 22 percent less than average and visit their place of worship more often than any other group, the report said.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)