This American Life had a fascinating show on marriage a couple weeks back (and have made an audio stream available). Most interesting was an interview (in act one) with Dr. John Gottman, a researcher who videotapes & bio-monitors couples discussing something they disagree about and codes their heart rates, expressions and how they speak to each other. From about 15 minutes of data he has an 85% chance of predicting if the marriage will last the next 4 years and whether they'll be happy with it. If he records another hour or so of the couples talking about how they met & things they share, his success rate goes up to 94%.
Posted by bug to Science at April 6, 2004 10:28 PM | TrackBackGottman rocks. His stock book is excellent, and was one of the really helpful texts in my own recent lossage, we both now speak very highly of the Gottman folks. I've been encouraged to go pick up one of his books written for practitioners, because it will probably be even more helpful.
Posted by: XThread at April 8, 2004 1:25 PM