In the West, more than 90 percent of people get married by the age of 50.
However, 40 to 50 percent of these marriages end with divorce. And, the rate of divorce for second and third marriages is even higher.
So, researchers who study marriages decided to find potential signs that could indicate a marriage is doomed to fail.
They hope that by studying failed marriages and those who’ve had them, they can locate certain patterns. By finding patterns, they hope to be able to predict whether a relationship can succeed or not.
Below, check out some more subtle and surprising signs that a marriage could fail.
5 Things Showing Us a Marriage Won’t Work
- Colleagues of the opposite sex
According to a study done in Denmark, people who work surrounded by the opposite sex have 15 percent higher likelihood of divorce.
And, they discovered that this link was stronger in the men with higher education. On the other hand, the link with the women with higher education was weak or didn’t exist.
Researchers’ hypothesis is that people will be more likely to marry someone who has the same or similar education they have. So, in a similar fashion, you may meet a person who’ll become your romantic partner at your workplace.
- Frowning in child photos
Most of us probably have photos from our childhood where we have frowned faces because we weren’t in good mood. However, if this is a common thing throughout your collection of child photos, you may need to ask yourself something important.
Namely, according to one study, the researchers were looking at college yearbook photos and rated the smile intensity on a 1 to 10 scale.
The scores were based on 2 muscles, one that pulls up on the mouth and the other which causes wrinkles around the eyes.
They concluded that no one from the people in the top 10 percent of smile strength divorced. On the other hand, from those in the lowest 10 percent, 1 in 4 divorced.
Another study required from people over the age of 65 to provide the researchers with photos from their childhood. They scored these images too and concluded that only 11 percent of the people with the biggest smiles divorced.
On the other hand, those who frowned a lot, that is, 31 percent, had broken marriages.
- You rarely fight
Fighting with our romantic partners is never fun; however, healthy disagreement is pivotal for good relationships. At least, this is what some experts believe.
According to Jeanette Schneider who’s a relationship expert and book author, it’s often a bad sign when a couple stops having disagreements.
Schneider notes that conflict brings intimacy if we know how to make it a place for growth of both sides.
When we stop entering into conflicts, because we’re either ignoring issues or because we give the other side a silent treatment, problems in the long run could happen.
- Your partner dislikes your friends
In 2018, one study was published and it showed that when the husband dislikes his wife’s friends, their marriage was more likely to end in a divorce.
The researchers came to this agreement after an analysis of 373 couples over a period of 16 years. And, they concluded that 46 percent of these couples divorced.
- Excessive affection
Although some may consider this counter-intuitive; newly-wed couples who are highly affectionate to each other are more likely to divorce later on than those who’re not.
This is at least what this study from 2001 indicates; namely, for the purpose of the study, 168 couples who’ve been married for around 13 years, were studied.
They concluded that the couples who divorced 7 or more years into their marriage showed 1/3 more affection to each other than those who didn’t divorce.
The researchers believe it’s a consequence of the couples’ inability to maintain this high level of romantic intensity long-term.
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