A long and happy marriage is possible ... under certain conditions. A recent study led by University of Tennessee psychologist Andrea Meltzer found that couples can certainly attain happy marriages as long as the wife remains skinnier than the husband.
"Husbands were more satisfied at the time of marriage, and remained more satisfied over time, to the extent that their wives had lower BMIs than their own," researchers said.
More specifically, the researchers added:
"Wives who had lower BMIs than their husbands remained more satisfied over time, whereas wives who had higher BMIs than their husbands demonstrated steeper declines in their satisfaction over time."
Taking into account factors such as income and education, researchers studied 165 newlywed couples through a series of questionnaires over a period of four years.
Perhaps stereotypically, the study suggested that body mass index is more important to men than to women:
"Several studies indicate that partner thinness is more important to men than to women, possibly because BMI is more strongly correlated with women's physical attractiveness than it is with men's. In contrast, because partner BMI is relatively less important to women, relative BMI may affect them only through its effect on men. That is, women who have lower BMIs than their partners should maintain higher levels of satisfaction with the relationship because their partners are more satisfied."
The results were published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
