Science Reveals 12 Characteristics of the Happiest Couples
10. Spend money in similar ways
The two biggest things couples fight about are sex and money. When it comes to the latter, it’s well-known to psychologists as well as social scientists that for some reason, people tend to attract their spending opposite. Big spenders tend to attract thrifty people, and vice versa.
A University of Michigan study corroborated this. Researchers found that both married and unmarried people tend to select their “money opposite”–and that this causes strife in the relationship. The happiest couples tend to spend money in a similar way, whether that is saving or indulging.
11. Have sex at least once a week
Probably the best statistic of the bunch comes from a 2004 study, which showed that upping your sexual activity from once a month to once a week can cause happiness levels to jump by as much if you made an extra $50,000 a year.
The study, entitled “Money, Sex, and Happiness: An Empirical Study” sampled 16,000 adult Americans. One of its main conclusions: “[S]exual activity enters strongly positively in happiness equations.”
12. Celebrate each other’s achievements
Anyone who has been in a relationship can attest to this one, but now there’s research to confirm it: A study in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology showed that when couples celebrate their partner’s accomplishments as if they were their own, they’re more satisfied in the relationship.
“In good times and bad” includes the good times–something it can be easy to forget. And it’s true; there’s nothing quite so satisfying as having your partner be loudly and enthusiastically in your corner when you do well.
Joy, after all, multiplies with love.
As Simone Signoret said, “Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years.”
This article was originally posted by Melanie Curtin on inc.com.
