7.8 /10 1 Votes
3.9/5 Barnes & Noble Language English Pages 288 Originally published 16 June 2015 Publisher Penguin Books | 3.8/5 Goodreads Country United States Publication date June 16, 2015 ISBN 1-59420-627-9 Page count 288 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Awards Goodreads Choice Awards Best Nonfiction Media types E-book, Hardcover, Audiobook Similar Eric Klinenberg books, Goodreads Choice Awards Best Nonfiction winners, Family books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Modern Romance: An Investigation is a research book written by American Actor and stand-up comedian, Aziz Ansari and American Sociologist and New York University Professor, Eric Klinenberg, published in 2015. The book provides research information exploring the change in romantic society that has occurred in the past decade. One of the main concepts in the book concerns the paradox of choice in relationships: having more options may seem better at first glance, though so many options can ultimately make "settling" for anyone a lot more difficult.
Contents
Background
Ansari, who has discussed how romance and technology interact in his standup comedy, wrote on his website that he wanted to explore the subject further. He writes, "Every one of us engages on a journey to find love and companionship. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection and truly love. This journey seems fairly standard now, but it's wildly different from what people did even just decades ago.... Some of our problems are unique to our time. 'Why did this guy just text me an emoji of a pizza?' 'Should I go out with this girl even though she listed Combos as one of her favorite snack foods? Combos!!?'"
The book combines comedy and social science.
Research
Ansari and Klinenberg, a professor at New York University, interviewed hundreds of people in various cities around the world, including Wichita, Kansas, Buenos Aires, Paris, and Tokyo, to investigate how the Internet and technology have affected modern love and relationships.
The pair also set up a forum on reddit, "Modern Romantics," soliciting responses to their questions, including:
Academics in the fields of anthropology, psychology, sociology and technology also contributed to their research, including Eli Finkel (Northwestern University), Helen Fisher (Rutgers University), Sheena Iyengar (Columbia Business School), Barry Schwartz (Swarthmore College), Sherry Turkle (MIT), and Robb Willer (Stanford University).
Release
The book was released on June 16, 2015. As part of the promotion, Ansari appeared at the second BookCon convention, which took place May 30–31 in New York City. The book received The Goodreads Choice Award for Non-Fiction in 2015.