A new study was done to look at if it is better to think exactly like your partner, or if it is better to have conflicting thoughts and opinions. When we choose someone that we want to share our lives with, there are a lot of things that we take into consideration. This is the person we will be living with and raising children with.
Some prefer to choose someone that is very similar to them. They have the same thoughts, opinions, and personalities as each other, and this works for them. There are others who don’t mind if their partner is a bit different from them, they challenge them, and make them think of things differently. However, has anyone ever stopped and thought about what may be scientifically better?
According to Medical Xpress, a study was done to see if “synchronized brains” are a predictor when it comes to happy marriages. This study was done by Stanford University, and it can be read in full here.
Previously, studies have conflicted with this. Some have said that similarities can predict how happy a couple will be, while others state that the differences in a relationship is what makes it thrive.
This new study was able to take a look at marital success and see if it could be tied to the synchronization of a couple’s brain waves. To complete this study, the researchers looked at 35 couples who have been married for at least a year. The couples were given several personality tests as well as demographic surveys, and they were asked to rate their marital satisfaction. What they found was that the link between marital happiness and “behavioral measures” was weak. There were no associations found between relationship satisfaction and age, sex, length of the marriage, or personality traits.
To get a closer look, they also completed brain scans as couples watched movie clips and viral videos. Their brains were examined as they watched the videos to see how similar their reactions were when watching the various videos. They did find that couples who reported higher satisfaction in their marriage had greater synchronization in their brain scans when watching the videos. They had more parts of their brain active at the same points in the video. However, researchers stated that this was only seen when they were watching clips about marriage. It seems the exact science behind what makes a couple work is still murky, but they are getting close.
Sources: Medical Xpress, PNAS