Researchers from the Brigham Young University in Utah found that materialistic couples are the most unhappy, as having money leads to more bickering. The happiest are those who don’t care about material things.

1,734 married couples were asked questions to assess how much they valued having “money and lots of things”. On average, couples who said money wasn’t important to them scored between 10 anf 15% higher on marriage stability and relationship quality than those where one or both partners were materialistic.

Professor Jason Carroll, of the university, said: “Couples where both spouses are materialistic were worse off on nearly every measure we looked at. There is a pervasive pattern in the data of eroding communication, poor conflict resolution and low responsiveness to each other.”

In one in five couples, both admitted to a strong love of money.

The research was published in the Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy.

Written exclusively for The Life Dept | Live Longer | 14 October 2011.

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