This Reuters article is likely to receive widespread commentary: Algebra Points the Way to a Happy Marriage.
Laurence Simon observes, “How many lines of cocaine did the reporter snort to believe this crap?”
Actually, the article doesn’t give much info at all. There’s an unspecified formula but it’s based on the results of a psychological examination that factors in all sorts of fairly important indicators. So, really, the algebra is just a weighted analysis of the evaluation. I suspect most psychologists, marriage counselors, or clergymen could predict which marriages are doomed based on an such an evaluation. Probably a pretty sizable chunk of couples that marry rather obviously aren’t compatible. It astounds me how many people get married without even discussing such major issues as whether/how many kids to have, whether the mother is going to stay home with said kids, how the finances will be handled, religious compatibility, and the like.
