Is marital infidelity up or do we just talk about it more?

Darkfrog submitted, created time 3 weeks 3 days (www.nytimes.com)

Studies over the past few decades have shown married women closing "the infidelity gap." Female cheaters don't outnumber male ones just yet, but they're getting there. The question, though, is this: Are women cheating (proportionately) more than they did or are they just more willing to admit it on an anonymous survey? This study suggests the latter.

It also chronicles changes in the rate of marital infidelity, also called adultery in more archaic settings. Aside from more young married women cheating on their partners, the most striking result is that more older people are involved

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Sniffing for Mr. Right

jerry submitted, created time 3 months 5 days (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

Weight gain and moodiness top the list of the unpleasant side effects of birth control pills. But could the pill also desensitize a woman's sniffer? New research suggests that oral contraceptives can reduce a woman's ability to smell the best mate. Although birth control can't be blamed for every bad relationship, the findings could help explain how people find their ideal love.

Most guys splash on a little cologne before a first date, but past research shows that their natural scent may be the better attractant

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Homosexual couples shed light on power sharing in relationships

Darkfrog submitted, created time 5 months 1 week (www.nytimes.com)

When Vermont legalized gay marriage, psychologists jumped on the opportunity to study human relationships. About a thousand heterosexual and homosexual couples participated in a study on relationships.

In general, homosexual relationships were more egalitarian, whereas in heterosexual ones the women got a disproportionate amount of the housework (and initiating conversations about relationship upkeep) and the men got a disproportionate amount of the financial responsibility. In addition, the homosexual couples argued better

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Ban on first-cousin marriages "not necessary"

sea-maid submitted, created time 5 months 3 weeks (www.newscientist.com)

It found that infant mortality is only 1.2 per cent higher among the children of first cousins compared with children that have more distantly related parents.

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Happily Marrieds Have Lower Blood Pressure

sumsung submitted, created time 8 months 8 hours (www.sciencedaily.com)

Happily married adults have lower blood pressure than singles with supportive social networks. Both men and women in happy marriages scored four points lower on 24-hour blood pressure than single adults. Having supportive friends did not translate into improved blood pressure for singles or unhappily marrieds.

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Humans Marrying Robots? A Q&A with David Levy

Peer reviewing the modern-day matchmaker: online dating sites begin to publish studies

Darkfrog submitted, created time 9 months 3 weeks (www.nytimes.com)

eHarmony.com and Chemistry.com in particular are dying to be able to advertise their dating algorithms as "scientifically proven." And after years in the online dating market, they finally have enough data to perform, write and publish sociological studies.

But will these studies be the real thing? So far, eHarmony's only got one out there, despite having enough data for more. For all that these companies claim to want to be peer reviewed, I get the impression that they're being awfully selective with the information that they release.

The article brings up another interesting point

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Flash-freezing changes the face of fertility, but not by much

Darkfrog submitted, created time 10 months 3 weeks (www.nytimes.com)

This article is as much about politics and attitude as it is about the new flash-freezing method, called vitrification, that allows women to preserve their genetic material without settling on a sperm donor or real-life partner first. The scientists in this article claim that the flash-freezing of unfertilized human ova, a relatively new process that improves the survival rate over conventional freezing, will "emancipate women as much as the birth control pill did in 1960

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What Is the Best Age Difference for Husband and Wife?

jane2007 submitted, created time 11 months 2 weeks (www.sciam.com)

New research shows that, at least for the Sami people of preindustrial Finland, men should marry a woman almost 15 years their junior to maximize their chances of having the most offspring that survive.
How startling!

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Is Divorce Bad for the Environment?

Eric wu submitted, created time 11 months 2 weeks (www.time.com)

Marriage and Divorce are opposite. Marriage seem to mean the beginning of happiness and Divorce always declare a break of a family. But instead,the article hold the idea that each time a family dissolves the result is two new households......

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