From: The Wall Street Journal
The Math Behind Successful Relationships
Nearly 30 years ago, a mathematician and a psychologist teamed up to explore one of life’s enduring mysteries: What makes some marriages happy and some miserable?
The psychologist, John Gottman, wanted to craft a tool to help him better counsel troubled couples. The mathematician, James Murray, specialized in modeling biological processes.
It was a match made in heaven.
The pair decided to create a mathematical model to quantify how couples interact and influence each other during an argument. The results helped Dr. Gottman visualize the dynamics of a marriage and measure the impact of therapy.
The approach also proved to be shockingly accurate at predicting which couples would divorce.
“We got actual numbers we could compute,” Dr. Gottman said. “We could see how the partners influence each other.”
Read the whole story (subscription may be required): The Wall Street Journal
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