Story
Somerset Maugham’s mother was an extraordinarily beautiful woman married to a man widely considered ugly. When a friend asked how…
Family · Formation · Love
Story
Five Out of a Hundred
Research by Cliff Notarius and Howard Markman
Researchers studying newlyweds over a decade found that couples who stayed together began with about five putdowns out of every hundred comments about each other. Couples who later split began with about ten. The gap widened over time. Early patterns of speech—small, repeated invalidations—proved more predictive than how “in love” the couple felt at the start. Words accumulate. So does their damage or their building.
How you’d preach it
Small differences in early speech patterns predicted which marriages would endure.
- Family
- Love