How to quantify love scientifically

While scientists are not known to be the most romantic of the human species, two scientists have discovered how to quantify love on scientifically. This was based on asking married couples the following two questions:

• How happy the couples were in their marriage as compared to how happy they would be if they remained single?
• What were the spouses answers to these questions?

Spouses Not As Tuned In As They Believe

Interestingly, only 40% of the 4000+ people interviewed were correct about the answers that the spouses gave. This means that 60% of the couples were not agreement with each other regarding these two questions. Sadly, 25% of this group had severe issues in their marriages. Certain people in the group were overly ambitious about the lengths their spouses would go to to make them happy.

Spouses Aim To Please Each Other

You may think that your spouse is head over heels in love with you and will do anything to make you happy. The reality may be that your spouse is less than enthusiastic about the marriage and he or she begrudges anything that he or she does for you. This could lead to the disgruntled spouse looking for reasons to end the marriage. Don't take your marriage for granted and don't become complacent about the marriage or your spouse.

The rate of divorce among this group was directly related to how spouses overestimated their spouse's feelings towards them and directly related to how unhappy one of the spouses were.

Negotiation Key To A Successful Marriage

Researchers found that while tough negotiations work in a marriage, it's equally important to introduce love and to care about the union. Spouses need to put each other first even though there is some sacrifice to be made. The upside of this is that the "sacrificing" partner will gain some measure of happiness knowing that his or her actions have made the other spouse happy.

The researchers also determined that marriages dissolve simply because one or both of the spouses were bargaining too hard to obtain happiness in the marriage.

While this information was helpful to a degree, there are too many other factors in marriage that determine levels of happiness in the marriage and how long it will last.