Happy wife

Rhyme has an uncanny power to lend credibility to a statement. Just consider this treasure trove of rhyming wisdom: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, “Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning”, “There’s many slip, ‘twixt the cup and the lip” and “A superfluous third elbow, makes a humorous fellow” (OK, we made that last one up). Although a rhyme might make something easy to remember and add veracity in that way, it might also be that a rhyme can hide a lack of meaning; but in the case of the old maxim, “Happy wife, happy life”, it seems the rhyme is not only memorable but true.

This topic was examined in a new study that looked at almost 400 couples in which at least one of the partners was aged over 60. On average the couples in the study had been married for 39 years.

Every person answered questions as to whether their spouse appreciates them, argues with them, understands their feelings or irritates them. The subjects also kept a diary that measured how happy they were in the previous day doing things like housework, shopping and watching television.

The results showed that, in general, for men and women, being in a better rated marriage was not statistically linked to greater life satisfaction and happiness. There was however an interesting twist for men. The results showed that the happier a wife was overall then the happier the husband, regardless of what the man thought about the marriage.

The researchers think this phenomenon might arise because wives take on the majority of caregiving when a husband is sick and that a happy wife will help a man as the couple faces the inevitable challenges of older age.

This explanation seems a little inadequate but whatever the reason it does seem that the adage is true and that a happy wife does lead to a happy life for a man. It just goes to show that “the results of a study can be a bit muddy” but “a good piece of rhyme is right most of the time”.