Media headlines this week gave the impression that “Marriage is not the key to happiness,” hinting that marriage makes people unhappy. But in fact, what the research found was that married people are generally happy — and that the people who tend to get married are already relatively happy beforehand.
“People who get married tend to be happy before the marriage occurred. If you are already happy to begin with, you are more likely to get married and stay married, but you have less to gain in terms of happiness,” said Richard Lucas, assistant professor of psychology at Michigan State University, main author of a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Well-established research, such as a 2002 study by Britain's Warwick University and Dartmouth College in the United States followed 10,000 people in the 1990s and concluded that married people live an average of three years longer and are wealthier, earning 10 to 20% more than singles.
For recent coverage in the Globe and Mail, click here.
(This update courtesy of LifeSite News.)
