Meet Anthony Paik, a sociologist and assistant professor at the University of Iowa and head of a new study that has found that connections based entirely on chemistry are not necessarily doomed to failure. That's right, hookups may actually develop into long-lasting relationships.

Photo by Jean Manuel Beauchamp Noriega.

Paik analyzed 642 heterosexual adults and found that average relationship quality was higher for individuals who waited to get serious before getting it on when compared to those where sex happened earlier as it happens with hookups, NSA situations and friends with benefits scenarios.

But guess what? It isn't the sex that's to blame for the disparity in relationship quality. Once Paik had factored out the people who stated they weren't interested in a serious relationship, the difference in terms of relationship quality disappeared. This means that couples who started off hooking up and eventually got serious turned out just as happy as those who started out seriously seeking a life partner and waiting to have sex until they did.

"We didn't see much evidence that relationships were lower quality because they started off as hookups," said Paik. "The study suggests that rewarding relationships are possible for those who delay sex. But it's also possible for true love to emerge if things start off with a more 'Sex and the City' approach, when people spot each other across the room, become sexually involved and then build a relationship. The question is whether it's the type of relationship that causes lower quality or whether it's the people. The finding is that it's something about the people."

Information via ScienceDaily.