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SMU Associate Professor of Psychology (Education) Ivy Lau has found through her research that Asian cultures give generally similar results to pre-existing North American studies. “The basic negative perception of single people being an unhappy group is replicated,” says Assoc Prof Lau. People who “choose” not to follow the developmental norm of going to school, graduating, getting a job, getting married, and then perhaps having two kids and a house are being judged more harshly, she added, citing that divorced singles are deemed much more unhappy than those who were never married. She also explained how singlism is internalised and why singles are more likely to settle.