HOME TO ROOST ~ WHO RULES?

There’s an old story about a couple married 50 years, and he stands proudly in front in a portrait wearing a button that says, ”I rule the roost.” And she stands demurely behind with a button that says, “I rule the rooster.”

In a group of 72 married couples who all expressed relative satisfaction in their relationships, researchers asked each person individually to identify a problem in their relationship that needed to be solved by both of them.

They isolated each couple together and asked them to hash out the problem — with no researchers present, but video recorders taping.

The tapes revealed:

”The women were communicating more powerful messages, and men were responding to those messages by agreeing or giving in,” psychologist David Vogel said in the study.

”There’s been research that suggests that’s a marker of a healthy marriage — that men accept influence from their wives,” said human development expert Megan Murphy, in the study.