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Beauty and the Beast?

by JM

JanetAccording to this report from KnoxNews.com, the tale of Beauty and the Beast might have a bit more to do with psychology in real life relationships than we ever would have thought.

According to the study:

“Researchers looking at physical attractiveness among newlyweds found that spouses behaved “more positively” in relationships where the wife was more attractive than her husband and “more negatively” when husbands were more attractive than their wives.”

What do they mean by ‘attractiveness’? According to the article, they were looking at facial attractiveness.

The study hadn’t originally started out to talk about physical attractiveness, but they thought of doing it later on and just so happened to have everything they needed.

Do you consider yourself more or less attractive than your partner? Do you think it matters in your relationship?

Personally, I don’t think I’m very qualified to talk about it. Yes, I think my husband is more attractive than I am, but the age gap between us plays a lot bigger of a role in things than physical attractiveness does.

Am I surprised by the findings of this study? Of course not. To me it speaks of the basically biological drives of both men and women (men to ‘spread their seed’ and women to get the ‘strongest provider’). Monogamy doesn’t fall in with the male biological urge, so if he is going to be monogamous, then he’d be a bit more positive about having a healthy, attractive spouse to ‘spread his seed’ with.

I would be curious to see them do this study with homosexual couple. I’d be interested to see what comes of it.

What do you think?


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When you're in it for the long haul, a relationship can be great. What's not to love about having someone with you for fun times and tough times? Even so, commitment has its ups and downs as couples make decisions for the future, get under each other's skin, and grow together. Stay tuned for true stories about dating and marriage, opinions about popular opinions, and thoughts on what it looks like to go the distance.

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