How To Tell If Someone Is “The Marrying Type” (According To Science)
There’s more to being ready to be in a committed relationship than a combination of emotional preparedness and luck: it turns out that there are certain traits that can predict whether someone is going to cohabit or marry.
According to a study in the journal Social Science Research, a sociology professor at the University of Miami studied 9,000 young people from 1994 until 2009. Throughout this time period, The Atlantic explained, “Interviewers were asked to rate the participants’ looks, personality, and grooming on a scale of one to five, five being the most attractive.” (They were advised to think of “attractive” in general terms.) Over the course of the study, researchers found that the presence of these three traits had no bearing on whether someone will cohabit, but the presence of all three together was linked to a greater likelihood of marriage.
Most notably, researchers also suggested that a deficit in one area can be improved in another area — say, a really hot person could get away with a terrible personality (cough Juan Pablo from “The Bachelor” cough) so long as they were groomed as meticulously as Donatella Versace’s left eyebrow.
These findings might sound totally obvious to you (dickheadedness + bad grooming = social isolation) or they might sound like a load of horse poop. I think it’s probably a little of both. The findings of the study could be miscontrued to justify why single people are unmarried or alone (which of course has to do with lots of other factors). And ultimately, the recipe for romantic love — or, at least, what constitutes good looks, good personality and good grooming — varies person to person. But it’s good to know that taking a daily shower can pay off!
[Image of a slob via Shutterstock]
Email me at Jessica@TheFrisky.com. Follow me on Twitter.