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"  This story originally appeared on GoodHousekeeping.com. Experts have been pondering the secrets of happy unions for decades. But according to a new study from Rutgers University, there&amp;#039;s a pretty simple way to spot a blissful marriage: It always includes a happy wife. &amp;quot;I think it comes down to the fact that when a wife is satisfied with the marriage, she tends to do a lot more for her husband,&amp;quot; says Prof. Deborah Carr, &amp;quot;which has a positive effect on his life.&amp;quot; RELATED: 8 New Proven Tricks That Make Your Marriage Stronger To conduct their study, researchers analyzed the marital quality and general well-being of 394 couples in which at least one of the couples was 60 years old or more. And on average, the couples were married for 39 years. They were asked to keep diaries about how happy they were in the previous 24 hours doing certain activities, such as shopping, doing chores and watching TV. And although overall life satisfaction didn&amp;#039;t significantly differ by gender, the men did tend to report slightly higher marital happiness than their wives did. But when a woman reported being unhappy, her husband&amp;#039;s life contentment took a big hit. &amp;quot;[An unhappy wife] is much more likely to talk, to be confrontational, and all of those things might affect the husband,&amp;quot; Carr told Yahoo. In contrast, a discontented husband is more likely to &amp;quot;sit and seethe silently,&amp;quot; so his misery doesn&amp;#039;t make that much of an impact on his wife. TELL US: Does this sound right to you? Photo: Getty Images NEXT: 8 Things Happily Married Couples Do Every Day \u00BB "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/advice/a7934/happy-wife-happy-marriage-good-housekeeping/>