Most Filipinos prefer health over love or money – SWS

Part of stethoscope with medicines in the background (INQUIRER.net stock)images

MANILA, Philippines — More than half of Filipinos said they would choose good health over love and money if they were to pick “only one of the following,” a Social Weather Station survey released in time for Valentine’s Day said.

Conducted from Dec. 12 to Dec. 16, 2021, the survey showed that 57 percent of the respondents chose health while 31 percent picked love, and 11 percent picked money.

Overall, 60 percent of women prefer good health over love and money, while 54 percent of men share the same view.

The same survey showed that four out of five Filipinos, or 84 percent, said they were more attracted to a “person’s brains than body.”

Attraction to a person’s intelligence was higher among women at 88 percent, compared with 81 percent among men.

Among women who prefer brains over the body, the highest proportion, at 90 percent, was among single women, followed by women with live-in partners at 89 percent, and married women at 86 percent.

The December 2021 survey also found 53 percent of Filipinos saying their love life is “very happy,” 28 percent said it “could be happier,” and 18 percent said they “do not have a love life.”

Since 2002, around half of adult Filipinos were recorded to have a very happy love life, ranging from the record-low 46 percent in 2004 to the record-high 59 percent in 2011.

On the other hand, those saying their love lives “could be happier” range from 29 percent to 44 percent, while those with “no love life” range from 9 percent to 18 percent.

The noncommissioned survey was conducted using in-person interviews with 1,440 adults. It has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.6 percent.

—INQUIRER RESEARCH

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