Less attractive men make for happier marriages

The NY Daily News reports on a new study in the Journal of Family Psychology that shows that couples are happier and more satisfied in their marriages when the man is less attractive than the woman. This could be partially due to the fact that men, the ones who are traditionally more likely to cheat, are less interested in other women when their wives are hot.

'Both spouses tended to behave more positively when wives were more attractive than their husbands and more negatively when husbands were more attractive than their wives,' said the study by UCLA's Benjamin Karney.

Karney also found that it doesn't matter how much better looking the wife is than the husband - just that there is a discrepancy.

From Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller to Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, beautiful women have been marrying less attractive men through the ages.

Consider Howard Stern and his fiancee, Beth Ostrosky; Christina Aguilera and her geeky husband, Jordan Bratman, or Sienna Miller's latest fling with homely actor Rhys Ifans.

According to the study, it is evolution that dictates that physical attractiveness of long-term mates is more important to men than to women.

Men are looking for a way to carry on their genes and see physical attractiveness as an indicator of strong genetics.

'Because physical attractiveness is less important to women, in contrast, relative attractiveness may only affect them through its effect on their husbands,' the study says.

[From The NY Daily News]

This is interesting, because I thought I learned in psychology class that couples who were matched in levels of attractiveness were the ones who lasted. This story made me think of Cate Blanchett's husband and I feel bad for using them as an example, but they're the first ones who came to mind. Cate, 38, has been married to screenwriter and playwright Andrew Upton, 41, for just over 10 years and they are expecting their third child together next month. Cate is one of Hollywood's most beautiful actresses and her husband looks refreshingly plain.

The Daily News quotes people explaining the ugly guy = happy marriage phenomenon by saying that 'When a woman looks better in a relationship she feels like she has nothing to worry about,' and 'the men try harder so it makes for a better marriage.'

And I thought it had more to do with shared interests and communication. It would seem to help if the less attractive man was incredibly rich and kind too.

Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman are shown on 9/29/07. Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton are shown on 11/4/07 and 6/14/07, thanks to Splash News.