High quality literature production and mating success

“We hypothesized that the quantitative and qualitative literary output of famous writers would correlate with their number of mates, children, and grandchildren. We further assumed that writing lyric poetry would be more beneficial for mating success than nonpoetry because the former consists of more verbal handicaps (e.g., rhymes) than the latter and thus requires special […]

Wedding spending and marriage duration, linked?

Are higher wedding expenses associated with longer-lasting marriages? And is the phrase “A diamond is forever” just a fairytale? Professors Andrew M. Francis and Hugo M. Mialon of the Economics Department at Emory University, US, express their opinions in their forthcoming paper for Economic Inquiry, entitled: ‘‘A Diamond is Forever’ and Other Fairy Tales: The […]

Disruptive technology: Twitter and marital breakups, maybe

If you enjoy fun, conceivably-partly-true tales about disruptive technologies (as some people do — see, for example, Harvard Business School Professor Clay Christensen‘s tidy tales of disruption), then pay heed to the scholarly studies from Russell B. Clayton. Clayton, at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has a new study about Twitter and marital breakups: “The Third Wheel: The Impact of Twitter Use on […]

Relative Finger Length and Age at First Marriage in Semi-Nomadic People

Here’s further evidence that Relative Finger Length sheds light on practically everything: “The Second to Fourth Digit Ratio and Age at First Marriage in Semi-Nomadic People from Namibia,” Piotr Sorokowski, Agnieszka Sorokowska, Dariusz Danel, Mara L. Mberira and Leszek Pokrywka, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Volume 41, Number 3, 2012, pp. 703-710.

Thought process of an outstanding psychiatrist & life coach, Dr. K. Ablow, in assessing the patient, Gingrich

One of the world’s outstanding psychiatrists—who is also a professional life coach—candidly reveals his thought process, in an essay for Fox News. Dr. Keith Ablow [pictured here, legs akimbo] applies his brain to a particular question of national (in the USA) and international significance—a question that others have found perplexing. Dr. Ablow also daringly reveals […]

The Unhappiness of Handsome Husbands

“Beyond Initial Attraction: Physical Attractiveness in Newlywed Marriage,” James K. McNulty, Lisa A. Neff, and Benjamin R. Karney, Journal of Family Psychology, vol. 22, no. 1, February 2008, pp. 135–43. (Thanks to Ron Josephson for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, who are variously at University of Tennessee, University of Toledo, and University of […]