Understanding Relationships
The best science has to offer
"I have found that much of the conventional wisdom
- even among many marital therapists -
is misguided or dead wrong."
- John Gottman, Ph.D.
"Well, I mean, you do know what they say about the sample size of a man's double-blind studies..."
article by LiveReal Agents
Science likes to brag about its progress.
Chemistry, physics, medicine: the successes we've made over the past few centuries - curing diseases, putting a man on the moon, inventing plastic - is pretty impressive.
But what does one of the most important areas of all of human life?
What does science have to say about human relationships?
Here at LiveReal, we continue our undaunted, brazen and tireless pursuit of real answers to a few simple questions: What really makes a marriage succeed or fail? What causes divorce, and what can a person do to prevent it? What, if any, are the "secrets" or principles to a happy marriage or relationship?
In our valiant mission to understand relationships, your fuzzy, cuddly LiveReal Agents decided that it would be a good idea to see what humanity as a whole has really figured out and been able to communicate on the topic.
After nearly drowning ourselves in mounds of literature, we realized that much of the advice we was...well, we believe the scientific term for it is "garbage."
But we persevered, and decided to try a different approach - namely, to ask what science - the real, rigorous kind - has to say on the matter.
That definitely had the effect of clearing the room faster than a bean-eater in an elevator. Once you mention "evidence" and "experiments," a vast number of "relationship experts" grab their bag of wireless microphones and weekend seminar pamphlets and head home.
But not all. So here, we present to you what the think is the best that science has to offer on the matter.