Posted on 05/15/2005 4:55:32 PM PDT by CarrotAndStick
Leaving a wet towel on the bathroom floor may seem a minor issue but it could wreck a relationship. Scientists have identified a list of the most annoying habits that can cause rifts between couples.
The study of minor irritations in domestic life has found that people can almost become "allergic" to a partner's foibles. Failure to control that shrill laugh might end in marriage-destroying fury. Among the most annoying habits are failing to hang up towels, leaving a new loo roll on top of the empty one and using a fork as a back-scratcher.
Cringe-inducing endearments such as "babykins" can also cause an adverse reaction. When repeated, a couple can reach snapping point.
Many of the habits detailed in the study, published in the academic journal Personal Relationships, are the familiar fibre of male-female interaction. They include nose-picking, burping and tatty clothes in men and lateness, verbosity and demands for reassurance about clothing in women.
The study, funded by the US government's health research arm and conducted at Louisville University, charted the grim "deromanticisation" of more than 160 relationships. It also compared what was termed "social allergen frequency" (nasty habits) with relationship satisfaction and failure in a further 274 people. The report, Social Allergies in Romantic Relationships, aims to establish the nature of the link between nasty habits and nasty divorce. Some of the issues raised will provide bored couples with a new range of things to complain about.
Well, you're married and so am I. You understand the language known as wifespeak.
Oddly enough, men typically automatically check the position of the seat regardless of where their brains are. If men can do this, why can't women?
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