For better

i cannot say enough good things about this non-fiction book!  it's informative, mostly non-anecdotal (the author does veer into her own marriage towards the end of the book), full of verified data, and has just the right mix of quizzes to keep you participating in the evidence you are uncovering.
i've been reading it, bits at a time, since december.  that meant i renewed it at the library.  returned it.  got it again.  renewed again.  it's the best way to read non-fiction that can impact your daily life: slowly.
so here's just a few of the many things i learned:
the belief that the chance of divorce is 50-50 influences people's choice to throw the towel in.  yet the actual data supports that marriages are much stronger.  in fact, divorce rates between college graduates who marry after the age of 25 is only 20%. 
marriage today has higher expectations than the traditional marriage of the past where couple united to have children - men requiring someone to wash their clothes and make their dinner, while women required financial support.  (the advent of tv dinners made the life of a single person much easuer)  nowadays, men and women expect their mate to be their social and emotional centre.  this is why parenting, such a non-issue in the past - has become such a strain to marriage.  children take time: time that was once devoted to their mate. 
money.  this no surprise - number 1 reason couples fight is money.  but children bring in debt (a mortgage for a house, education savings) and LOTS of extra chores around the house.  the number 2 reason couples fight :)
did i mention the riskiest time for a fight?  the first 15 minutes of re-entry: when one half of the couple comes home after home or whatever.  tread lightly then, and the rest of your evening will sail by much smoother.  but don't stop fighting.  fighting is good.  couples that fight like hellcats the first 2 years even out in the persuant years as issues have been dealt with.  by this time, couples that avoided conflict are heading toward divorce
one of my fav pieces of research was the reaction of attached males and females to temptation (a good looking actor flirting with them).  the females were defensive and tried to protect their relationship - to the point of forgiving their partner when revealed they had told a lie.   meanwhile, the males saw the flirting as proof they were desirable and were less likely to forgive a lie from their partner since, as they saw it, there were other women available to him. 
remember that swedish study where blindfolded women smelled the armpits of men to determine which phermones attracted them?  well, turns out women on the pill cannot correctly idenfity an ideal (genetic) scent of a man.  in fact, they are more likely to be attracted to the worst genetic-compatibility.