Practice Management

I have never really wondered why my wife chose to marry me, go to law school with me, have four children with me, and practice with me in our secluded home office.  After all, we all know that Ziggy is the ideal look for which most women are looking, and I have those very desirable quality.  However, I have always wondered how in the world Grant Griffiths over at Home Office Warrior and Rick Georges over at Future Lawer could have possibly conned those beautiful women of their's into marrying them, much less bare their children, and staying with them all of these years.  It is perplexing to say the least if downright confounding.

But, the question might have been answered when I read this article on Yahoo! News about why beautiful women marry and stay with less attractive men.

As it turns out, overall wives and husbands behaved more positively when the woman was better looking.

The finding "seems very reasonable," said Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences and Sloan School of Management. "Men are very sensitive to women's attractiveness. Women seem to be sensitive to men's height and salary," said Ariely, who was not involved in the recent study.

In couples with more attractive husbands, both partners were less supportive of one another. McNulty suggests wives mirror, in some ways, the level of support they get from husbands.

"The husband who's less physically attractive than his wife is getting something more than maybe he can expect to get," McNulty told LiveScience. "He's getting something better than he's providing at that level. So he's going to work hard to maintain that relationship."

Men who are more attractive than their partners would theoretically have access to partners who are more attractive than their current spouses, McNulty said. The "grass could be greener" mentality could make these men less satisfied and less committed to maintain the marriage.

Physical attractiveness of husbands is not as important to women, the researchers suggest. Rather, wives are looking for supportive husbands, they say.

So it seems the mismatch in looks is actually a perfect match. "Equitable is unlikely to mean the same on every dimension," Ariely said during a telephone interview. "It just means that overall two people make sense together."