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The Smile, A Predictor of Marriage Success, Study Shows
Filed under: Divorce & Custody, In The News, Weird But True, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Tweens, Research Reveals: Teens
A child who smiles in his class picture is more likely to have a happy marriage. Credit: PictureQuest
A DePauw University study shows that kids with weak smiles in childhood photographs are most likely to experience divorce and unhappy marriages in their middle age, according to a story in Scientific American.
Conversely, kids with big grins, as indicated by the crow's feet around their eyes, experience a divorce rate of only one in 20.
The pattern holds well into their early 20s, according to the research: Those who display weak smiles from the age of 10 all the way through college had a one-in-four rate of divorce. The study builds on research conducted by the University of California, Berkeley, that followed young women from college life through middle age.
The Berkeley study showed that female college students whose smiles were the widest in their senior yearbook photos were more likely to be married by their late 20s. It also found that they scored the highest for overall well-being, which includes factors like relationships with others, general self-satisfaction, and physical or psychological difficulties.
Never fear, sour puss -- Matthew Hertenstein, the DePauw psychologist who led the new study, told Scientific American that there may be a more "cynical" reason why Grinning Gertie has a happier marriage. It could be that people with big, cheesy smiles are just trying to put on a brave face.
"Maybe people who look happier in photos show a social face to others," he told the magazine. "Those may be the same people who are likely to put up with partners because they don't want to appear unhappy."
Did you smile big in your school pictures? Does your child?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 2)
9-11-2009 @ 1:44PM
mommiedear said...So....kids who dont smile because they are nervous or just in a bad mood that day or...oh I dunno constipated that day wont be successful what hocus-pocus this is! I would rather rely on the married laides on www.truuconfessions.com who have a lot of good advice for us in fact on the wife section they give us the recipe to a successful marriage NOW!
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9-11-2009 @ 10:38AM
Jason said...If that's the case, my 6yo will have an awesome marriage. Then again, she has said she's not going to get married because she wants to be an artist and "artists don't get married."
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9-13-2009 @ 8:38PM
catelynnw3 said...I love it!!!! I love the way kids view the world - thanks for sharing!
9-14-2009 @ 12:00PM
Kira said...OMG Jason. That is just too cute!
9-21-2009 @ 12:23AM
Bunny said...So if i'm feeling bad that day and I don't smile or I'm just having a bad day and don't smile in the picture. You are going to predict that my whole life is going to go down the toilet because of a picture. Well honestly whether a persons smiles or not in a picture is a load of crap. That could be putting on a show to the world and really sad inside or they could be crazy and just laughs at everything. You cannot predict how a person life will turn out just because they don't smile in a photo it is unrealistic. Basically they are saying if you don't smile nicely in photos your life will go down the toilet in the future or you are destine to fail. And they tell us that things have to be scientifically proven and have facts and makes senses. This type of study makes no senses at all. It's too many possiblities that can happen that could make the prediction go wrong. The person could die before they reach the age to get married, the child could become unhappy if something bad happens. Or something good could happen to them to change their bad situation that could make them a better person. It's all a big question mark only time will tell. A smile cannot predict a person's life sorry I'm not buying that one.
9-11-2009 @ 3:43PM
queenoqueens said...This study explains alot.
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9-13-2009 @ 8:38PM
JC said...This article is absolutely crazy! give me a break folks...your smile can NOT determine your future! who are these crazy writers??? I read another silly article on here a while back: "How your pregnancy goes is how your child will be" ??? right, like it doesnt have anything to do with PARENTING???
9-13-2009 @ 8:47PM
G.I. said...Waste of money on more stupid studies
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9-13-2009 @ 8:54PM
Judy said...agreed! Divorced when my boys were 1, 2 and 3 yrs old....ALL of there photos, they SMILE, hugh! Maybe the weight of the world was not off only my shoulders, but THEIRS! All in high school now, involved heavily in sports, and doing well academically.
9-13-2009 @ 8:57PM
GI Joseph said...I smiled great when I was a kid. She was the one who divorced me because she wanted her freedom, and I and my two young boys couldn't do a thing about it. Now they don't smile. What a bitch.
9-14-2009 @ 6:27AM
alias said...Well it can go one way or another. One thing is certain you will always pay taxes. The only variable is where the tax dollars go. They can fatten the wallets of some senator's friend on wall street, pay for a stupid study or provide something useful and good for the community. Something like diverting money away from the insurance companies instead of guaranteeing them billions more every year. If America self insures, we stop supporting those criminals and one way or another you still pay taxes. But maybe if you stop complaining about health care or tell your congressmen and senators to enact health care for all now, you will be promoting something good instead of something stupid and we don't have to read these stupid articles.
9-13-2009 @ 9:02PM
StudiedStatistics said...JC -- This study doesn't say that a smile determines your future. It only establishes that there is an ASSOCIATION between the two factors -- smiling and divorce rates. This is interesting, but lays no claim to a causal relationship.
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9-13-2009 @ 9:08PM
sofia said...this is the dumbest shit i ever heard!
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9-13-2009 @ 11:53PM
Paula said...When I was a kid, I was tense and nervous, very shy. I have been happily married for 16 years, go figure. My daughter has the most forced, fakest photo smile! The smiles in her pictures always make us laugh! Because of this, she is doomed to have a miserable marriage? How ignorant.
9-13-2009 @ 9:38PM
AMS1024 said...stop getting so worked up about it. it's a study. correlation does not equal causation. just because there's a statistical similarity between smiling and good marriages doesn't mean there's any connection. it's just a possibility. it's not going to ruin your life. it's not telling you why your marriage failed. it's just a study. and by the way, these studies aren't paid for by the government so they aren't wasting YOUR money. most are done by either private research facilities or universities.
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9-13-2009 @ 10:20PM
Ann said...Private research companies and universities get government grants!! And they also ask people for donations for important research... if only the people donating knew what bullshit they really spend it on. And regardless of who's money it is.. something better could be done with it than moronic crap like this. Oh yeah... it's just a study... a REALLY stupid one and some idiot somewhere is sure to believe this bunk, so I guess it must be successful.
9-14-2009 @ 12:35AM
Melissa said...AMS1024, THANK GOODNESS for someone with some reason.
And the poster who replied to you, it's "whose", not "who's". Gee whiz, someone ought to fund a study to find out why idiots like you don't bother to learn the English language and aren't embarrassed by the world knowing it!
9-13-2009 @ 10:20PM
Ruben said...Are you flipping kidding me? Morons need to put down the study books and live their lives for cryin out loud. Where do they even come up with this shit, FOR REAL?
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9-22-2009 @ 2:28PM
Colleen said...As a child I didn't smile much because I had a bad root canal that left my front tooth gray. I am have been married for 18 years and I am very happy!! I guess I was not supposed to do that! lol
9-13-2009 @ 10:35PM
Ski said...The kids that don't smile probably have a crappy family/home life which would lead to a possible bad marriage. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. This has already been proven as fact.
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