Still single? Try marrying a stranger, expert says

Still single? Try marrying a stranger, expert says

When Bobby Dodd, 27, and Danielle Bergman, 30, met for the first time, it wasn’t at a bar or on a dating app.

It was at the altar, saying “I do” in front of family, friends — and a camera crew.

That’s the premise of Lifetime’s “Married at First Sight,” which returns for its seventh season on Tuesday night. Unlucky-in-love singles are matched with their hopeful life partner, which is chosen for them by a panel of experts: pastor Cal Roberson, sociologist Pepper Schwartz and psychologist Jessica Griffin.

Dr. Jessica Griffin of "Married at First Sight"Dr. Jessica GriffinLifetime

“We ask a tremendous amount of questions of participants throughout the matchmaking process,” Griffin tells The Post. “I focus my interviews on how their upbringing has shaped them, what sorts of relationships they observed and experienced earlier in their lives, how their relationship history has influenced their own relationships.”

Another question she never skips? “Why they would ever consider marrying a stranger.”

In addition to Bergman and Dodd, couples taking the plunge include Amber Martorana, 36, and Dave Flaherty, 37, as well as Mia Bally, 29, and Tristan Thompson (not the one who fathered Khloé Kardashian’s child), 29. All six contestants are based in Dallas, Texas.

Danielle Bergman and Bobby Dodd appear on Lifetime's "Married at First Sight"Danielle Bergman and Bobby Dodd make up one couple on “Married at First Sight”Nat Chittamai

“It sounds like a crazy idea, but it has worked for some couples,” Griffin says. “Some people have been fed up with failing to find love in today’s swipe-right society, and are willing to take extraordinary measures to find the love of a lifetime.”

After the wedding, the show then follows its couples through their first eight weeks of marriage. At that point, couples face a decision: to stay together or divorce.

Two pairings from last season have since called it quits, although one twosome remains intact — and has a baby on the way.

Griffin thinks contestants should give it longer than eight weeks, though.

“I think couples should see how they feel outside of the television aspect of all of this,” she says. First, because “it’s physically and emotionally demanding [to have your] lives documented,” but also because “trust is developed over time — through consistency, following through and being vulnerable with the other person.”

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