In 2017, 220,582 marriages between people of different sexes and 7,176 marriages between people of the same sex were celebrated in France. But if the “D-day” is generally a moment of pure happiness, it is difficult to predict the future of the couple… and the risk of rupture!
Researchers from the Yale School of Public Health (in the United States) looked at the genetic heritage of spouses to determine whether genetics also had a role to play in marital happiness.
For this, they worked with a group of 178 married couples, aged 37 to 90. Each participant was asked to complete a satisfaction questionnaire (!) with respect to their marriage (concerning their feeling of security, their anxiety about the future of the couple, their happiness as a couple…) and to provide a saliva sample to scientists.
Happy marriage, favorable genetics?
The results are surprising: the researchers discovered that when one of the two spouses had a particular genetic characteristic (the GG genotype, which affects the body’s oxytocin receptors, this hormone traditionally associated with affection and social relations), feelings of satisfaction and security in the couple were higher. They even managed to quantify this increase: with this genetic particularity, “marital happiness” was higher by about 4%.
“This work shows that the satisfaction we derive from our romantic relationships is not only linked to our personality or our experiences as a couple: the spouses are also influenced by their genetic predispositions” analyze the researchers, who published their work in the specialist journal PLOS ONE.
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