University of Auckland researchers found that being right in a relationship leads to happiness but being happy is more important than being right for a relationship to succeed.
The number of divorces in the United States is mounting and much of this has to do with unhappy couples. According to a new study, doctors find that most couple live unnecessary stressful lives because they prefer being right than happy in a relationship, a press release revealed.
For the study, University of Auckland researchers tried evaluating the effect of being right versus being happy on a couple's quality of life. They conducted a study on a married couple at their home. The study was based on the assumption that the female subject always wanted to be right while the male subject always wanted to be happy. Therefore, the male was asked to agree to everything the female said without complaining. The male participant was also informed about the study while the female participant wasn't.
Through the study, researchers measured the quality of the couple's life on a scale of 1 to 10. The study was carried out for only 12 days after which the male participant started complaining that the female participant had become overly critical of everything he did.
The man's quality of life fell from 7 to 3 by the end of the twelve days while the woman's scores increased from 8 to 8.5 in just six days.
"It seems that being right is a cause of happiness, and agreeing with what one disagrees with is a cause of unhappiness," said the authors. "The results of this trial show that the availability of unbridled power adversely affects the quality of life of those on the receiving end."
"Many people in the world live as couples, and we believe that it could be harmful for one partner to always have to agree with the other. However, more research is needed to see whether our results hold if it is the male who is always right, " the researchers added.
