Study: That Whole ‘Happy Wife, Happy Life’ Thing? It’s True


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Even though most of you probably have enough real-life examples you can point to that already prove the old saying “happy wife, happy life” is true—it’s still pretty funny that science is now confirming it, too.

A new study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family declares that among 394 couples who were interviewed and whose answers were analyzed for this research, well, the men were very affected by their female partner’s happiness—the ladies, not so much:

A husband’s satisfaction both with his marriage and his life was higher when his wife also reported being happy with the marriage; on the other hand, both dipped when his wife was unhappy with their relationship. No similar association was found for the wives, however.

And Deborah Carr, one of the authors of the study and a sociologist at Rutgers University, has a pretty good guess, we think, as to what’s going on here: When woman are unhappy, the men most definitely know about it. But when men are unhappy, it’s quite possible their wives might not really know. “Men tend to be less vocal about their relationships, and their level of marital unhappiness might not be translated to their wives,” she said.

So keep your power in mind, ladies. Make sure you use it for good.

RELATED: Study: If the Wife Gets Over Fights Quickly, the Marriage Will Be A-OK 

RELATED: Study: Couples Get a Better Night’s Sleep When the Wife Is Happy 

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