Childhood smile could predict your risk of divorce

Whether or not you will have a successful marriage, or a divorce in life depend on how much your life partner smiled as a child.

The research, carried out by researchers from DePauw University in Indiana, showed that those who smile a lot as children are more likely to have successful marriages as adults, while weak smiles lead to divorce.

To find out a link between childhood smiles and the risk of getting a divorce, the researchers’ team led by Matthew Hertenstein, the associate professor of psychology in DePauw University, conducted two tests.

In one test, the team looked at people’s collection of yearbook photos, and rated their smile intensity from a scale of 1 to 10. After studying the yearbook photos, Hertenstein and team found that none of the people who fell within the top 10 percent of smile strength had divorced, while almost one in four of the bottom 10 percent had a greater chance of experiencing a broken marriage.

In a second test, Hertenstein and colleagues recruited a group of adults 65 or older, and asked them to produce pictures of themselves as children.

Using technology, researchers analyzed the smiles of the children in these photos (the average age in the pictures was 10 years), and concluded that those who had the biggest smiles in their photos had an 11 percent chance of getting a divorce, while those who were not smiling in pictures had a 31 percent chance of experiencing a failed marriage as an adult.

"Smile intensity predicted whether or not participants divorced at some point in their lives," the researchers said, adding: "The less intensely participants smiled, the more likely they would be divorced later in life."

Overall, the researchers have concluded that people who frown in childhood photos are five times more likely to get a divorce at some point in their life than those who smile for the camera, probably because people with smiling face more often tend to attract happier people.

"Maybe smiling represents a positive disposition towards life," explains Hertenstein. "Or maybe smiling people attract other happier people, and the combination may lead to a greater likelihood of a long-lasting marriage. We don’t really know for sure what's causing it."

Hertenstein said the possibilities could be that smiling for the camera may indicate a more obedient personality. The researchers believe that those with a happy disposition develop a bigger support network of friends and in turn find it easier to handle difficulties in relationships and marriages.

"I think [our results] go along with a lot of the literature that’s been coming out over the last five to 10 years, which shows that positive emotionality is incredibly important in our lives," Hertenstein added. "There are many, many beneficial outcomes to a positive disposition."

Hertenstein and colleagues reported their findings this week in the journal Motivation and Emotion.