This archive report was first published on 9 September 2019.
Research published in the Journal of Family Psychology in 2008 revealed a surprising truth about marriage: the wife's attractiveness plays a significant role in determining the relationship's satisfaction.
James K. McNulty, Lisa A Neff, and Benjamin R Karney conducted a study involving 82 newlywed couples, who completed a questionnaire and participated in a video-recorded interaction discussing a personal problem.
Trained research assistants rated the couples' facial attractiveness and marital interaction behavior. The results showed that there was no evidence that being more attractive provided any benefits to marriage.
However, the difference in attractiveness between the two spouses was crucial. McNulty and his colleagues found that when wives were more attractive than their husbands, they behaved more constructively during social support interactions.
On the other hand, when husbands were more attractive than their wives, they behaved less constructively and were less satisfied with their marriages. Interestingly, wives who had husbands who were more attractive than them tended to behave more negatively towards their husbands.
The study's findings suggest that what matters most in an established relationship is not the absolute level of attractiveness of one's partner, but their relative attractiveness.
As McNulty and his colleagues explained, “whereas the attractiveness of two individuals may have independent effects on their relationship when they first meet, the relationship between their levels of attractiveness may have the greater impact on the relationship as partners grow interdependent.”
