The Daily Telegraph reported this week that a  study to assess whether marriage improves if a husband agrees to all his wife’s demands had to be abandoned after the man sank into a deep depression.
Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand were hoping to test whether the key to a happy marriage lies in bowing to the whims of a partner and giving up the need to ‘always be in the right.’
In the experiment the husband was asked “agree with his wife’s every opinion and request without complaint. Even if he believed the female participant was wrong, the male was to bow and scrape,” said researchers. But after recruiting a couple for an initial pilot they were forced to scrap the project as the husband became deeply depressed.
There were a number of conclusions drawn from the pilot study.
These suggest that it seems that being right may be a cause of happiness, and agreeing with what one disagrees with is a cause of unhappiness.
The availability of unbridled power adversely affects the quality of life of those on the receiving end.
This last comment not only applies in a marriage. It also applies in Government where elected representatives think that they were elected to rule. Worse are the civil servants (at all levels) who think that they have the God given right to tell people what’s good for them. Often a case of don’t do as I do, do as I tell you.
More can be read on
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10524035/Happy-marriage-study-abandoned-as-husband-becomes-depressed.html