It is widely believed that people who get married lead a happier life than people who are lonely. But the impact of marriage seems to be more complex
It is widely believed that people who get married lead a happier life than people who are lonely. But the impact of marriage seems to be more complex than this, according to a long-running population study in Germany. Researchers in Germany have found that marital status has no impact on that general life satisfaction. on contrary to what was believed life satisfaction tends to stay constant over the years irrespective of whether a person is married or not.// Researchers studied a group of 12,000 German residents some native Germans others immigrants. They found that getting married, as an event, does increase people's happiness. However the level of life satisfaction tends to settle down to what it was long before marriage. The same is true for other life events like winning a lot of money or suffering from illness. Levels of happiness go up or down at first, then return to their previous level. The researchers call this 'hedonic leveling' and it's a measure of people's overall life satisfaction. Widows and widowers show an initial decrease in life satisfaction after losing their spouse, but as time goes on they do not stay miserable for the rest of their lives. They return to their former level of life satisfaction.
