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How did you and your fiancé meet? If someone set you up on a blind date or introduced the two of you, chances are, they're still smiling about it. As it turns out, playing Cupid may have big rewards for the matchmaker.
In a new study published this month in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, researchers found that people who introduce friends to each other in hopes that they will make a love connection see a boost in their own levels of happiness. But, there's a catch: The would-be matchmakers' greatest happiness rewards came when the two people they introduced were least likely to meet on their own (think: setting up a work friend with an old friend from high school or college), or, even more interesting, when the couple came from different ethnic or socioeconomic backgrounds.
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So why do matchmakers get such a happiness lift from their work? According to the researchers, it all boils down to the element of kindness (at our core, most of us love doing good things for the people in our lives), as well as the importance we place as a society on finding true love. "...People enjoy being the key person who made that critical match between newlyweds or between business partners who started a successful venture," wrote one of the study's authors.
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If they're correct, then Millionaire Matchmaker Patti Stanger must be the happiest woman in America, right?
Tell us: Have you ever successfully set up friends on a blind date?