INTERESTING PROBLEM.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20277, 11 April 1934, Page 1

INTERESTING PROBLEM.

Why Engagements Are Broken Off. LONDON, April 4. Fifty-nine broken engagements were announced in 1933—almost twice as many as in 1932, says the special repre sentative of the “ Daily Express.” The reasons have been: “It fizzled out ” —“ We felt a growing coldness ” “ We made a mistake.” It is nearly always added: “We are still the best of friends.” What is the mentality behind broken engagements? Why are they increasing? These were two questions I put to Dr W. Stephenson, of the department of psychology, University College, London. “ For one thing,” he replied, “ men no longer have the Victorian sense of honour. They are much more freeminded. “ I should like to have just ten couples who have broken off their engagements as I should like to analyse them. It would be an interesting human problem. “ Fifty years ago a man would not have dared break off an engagement. It always came from the woman, and it was a serious thing. Now a man does not feel that an engagement ties him. “ Unconsciously, too, he desires more than a girl who is sweet, fresh and who has simplicity of character. “ We live in a more complicated age. Perhaps the man seeks a woman of subtler temperament to be his wife. Men and women to-day live far more by emotional impulse han by precept and axiom. “ But in the first place I think young men become engaged almost without realising it. They make promises under the impetus of their emotions which they regret when the relationship has crystallised.”