One day last week bustling little Sociology Professor Ernest Watson
Burgess adjusted his spectacles and began to read a long, technical
paper to his class at the University of Chicago. As the 51-year-old
bachelor proceeded, his marriageable students became more and more
attentive. When he finished, he had given them a test-proof formula for
choosing a wife or husband, for predicting whether a marriage would be
successful.Professor Burgess was reporting what he and his colleague, Dr. Leonard
S. Cottrell Jr., had learned in one of the most thorough statistical
studies of marriage ever made in the U. S. It had taken seven years,
and the guinea pigs were 526 young married couples in Illinois. Married
from one to six years, they were mostly city folk, college or
high-school graduates, Protestants, more than half with an income of
$1,800 or more.Happiness-Each person was asked to estimate the degree of happiness of
his marriage:¶ Of the husbands, 55.4% rated their marriages very happy, 24.7% happy,
11.9% average, 5.6%, unhappy and only 2.4% very unhappy.¶ Of the wives, 51.8% thought their marriages were very happy, 27.5%,
happy, 12.3% average, 6% unhappy and 2.4% very unhappy.¶ In 71.7%, of the cases, husbands and wives agreed in rating their
marriages, and in 24.7% they differed by only one step on the scale.¶ The couples' friends' ratings agreed with their own in 48.5% of the
cases, and differed by only one degree in 42.7%.Harmony, Professor Burgess then examined in detail the relationships of
married couples, reported these signs of a successful marriage:¶ Agreement in handling family finances has a high correlation with
happiness. Of those who always agree, 61% are very happy and only 3%
very unhappy, while of those who always disagree 50%, are very unhappy,
none very happy. But 7.1% of those who always disagree nevertheless
rate themselves happy. ¶ Frequent kissing of the wife by the husband
is another sign of a happy family. So is agreement on intimate
relations. ¶ Agreement concerning friends and dealing with relatives
also has a high correlation with marriage success. ¶ Relatively unimportant to success in marriage are table manners, agreement about
religion or possession of an even temper.Test. Having developed a method of measuring success after the ceremony,
Professor Burgess proceeded to design an objective test to predict
success or failure before marriage. This he did by examining
significant facts in the background of the successful couples. Good and
bad matrimonial risks, according to Professor Burgess:¶ Likely to have a happy marriage is the person whose parents have been
happy.
¶ Contrary to the general belief, the more strongly the husband
and wife are attached to their parents, the more likely they are to be
happy in marriage. ¶ An only or youngest child is a poor risk unless
married to an oldest or middle child. Most successful mating is that of
an oldest child with another oldest.
¶Chances of success are greater if an individual marries another of similar family background. A person is a good risk if he or she attended Sunday school after the
age of 10, better if he is still attending.
