My younger brother is getting married next summer, and I’m happy for him. In addition to him being happy, and me getting a cool new sister-in-law, this move might even be good for the longevity of the newlyweds’ brains.
Married men tend to live several years longer than single men. A happy husband has an expected lifespan that’s around 10 years greater than his unwed brother. Women also benefit from wedlock, but not quite as much: they only get about 4 bonus
years.
One explanation for this effect is that single men (and women?) are more likely to engage in risky behavior that could cause a premature death. It’s also possible that a good marriage provides emotional support and a sense of purpose that is powerful enough to extend a lifetime. Another conceivable factor is that the people who are most physically and psychologically “fit” for survival might also be the most desirable mates and therefore the most likely to get married, though this speculation is a lot more controversial.
And your spouse can make you smarter.
Even if longevity’s not your aim, finding the right spouse could make you smarter. The married couple Warner Schaie and Sherry Willis, who have each done a great deal of important work in the areas of aging and cognition, say the following in their publication Mind Alert:
“In our study, we followed a number of married couples over a long period of time. It turns out that married couples’ intellectual performance converges over time: The spouse with lower cognitive functioning early in the marriage moves in the direction of the higher-functioning spouse, cognitively speaking. So the bottom line is that you should marry someone who’s smarter than you are.”
Who knew that a spouse could be good for your mental health!
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