Question 2 of 21

Which of the following groups reports the highest levels of happiness?

... Married couples report higher levels of happiness than any other group. Unmarried couples who live together rank second on the happiness scale, while singles are the least happy of the three groups.

Question 3 of 21

Fact or fiction: Getting married tends to increase happiness in the long term, not the short term.

... Fiction: Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered, through a review of British survey data, that getting married provides just a short-term boost to happiness. They also found that that marriage prevents happiness levels from declining over time (like they do for single people), resulting in a higher level of life satisfaction compared to singles, but not a long-term increase over pre-wedding happiness.

Question 4 of 21

Who gets the biggest benefit from marriage in terms of happiness: men or women?

... Marriage benefits men and women about the same when it comes to happiness. In a 2006 study by the Pew Research Center, 43 percent of both married men and women reported feeling very happy. Just 24 percent of single men and women reported feeling very happy.

Question 5 of 21

Fact or fiction: Older people get the biggest happiness boost from being married.

... Fiction: Older people actually get the smallest happiness boost from marriage. That's because unmarried seniors are the most likely of all age groups to describe themselves as very happy. While 44 percent of married seniors consider themselves very happy, so do 34 percent of unmarried seniors.

Question 6 of 21

Which of the following is a better predictor of happiness?

... According to the same 2006 Pew study, marriage is a much more reliable indicator than parenthood when it comes to predicting happiness. Married people with kids report about the same levels of happiness as married people without kids. Unmarried people report lower happiness levels, whether they have young children, grown children or no children at all.

Question 7 of 21

Is the average person happier before marriage or in his or her fifth year of marriage?

... After a few years of marriage, happiness levels return to where they were before the wedding. However, for singles, happiness declines over time, resulting in higher long-term levels of happiness for married people than single ones.

Question 8 of 21

Five years after losing a spouse, how does the average person's happiness level compare to his or her happiness level when the spouse was alive?

... Losing a spouse results in a temporary decrease in happiness, but after five years, most widows and widowers report happiness levels on par with those they experienced during the marriage.

Question 9 of 21

How long does the initial increase in happiness provided by a new marriage last?

... The honeymoon period, in which newlyweds enjoy a boost in happiness, lasts about two years. After that, happiness levels for both partners return to about where they were before the wedding.

Question 10 of 21

Fact or fiction: Marriage not only boosts happiness, it also lowers mortality by a significant margin.

... Fact: Nine out of 10 men who are married by age 48 will live to see the age of 65, while only six out of 10 unmarried men will live to that age.

Question 11 of 21

Do couples with opposite traits report higher or lower levels of marital satisfaction than those who are more similar in their traits?

... Sure opposites attract, but that doesn't mean you'll stay together. A 2006 study found that couples who shared similar traits reported higher levels of happiness and satisfaction than those with dissimilar traits.

Question 12 of 21

What is the best predictor of human happiness?

... The quality of our social relationships is the number one predictor of human happiness. This perhaps helps to explain why marriage, which is perhaps the strongest of all social bonds, can have such an impact on happiness.

Question 13 of 21

Fact or fiction: Statistically, marriage has a bigger impact on happiness in wealthier nations than in developing ones.

... Fact: Marriage seems to have a bigger impact on happiness in economically developed nations than it does in less developed ones.

Question 14 of 21

Fact or fiction: Each member of a married couple tends to rate their happiness level about the same as the other member.

... Fiction: In a 2002 study, a staggering 25 percent of respondents who reported that they were in a "happy" marriage had a partner who described the union as "unhappy."

Question 15 of 21

How do happiness levels change from a first marriage to a second one?

... After divorce, people who remarry report that their second marriage provides about the same level of happiness as the first.

Question 16 of 21

Fact or fiction: Most people who find themselves in an unhappy marriage will only find happiness through divorce.

... Fiction: Unhappy couples are highly likely to find happiness simply by sticking with the marriage. In one study, more than 78 percent of married people who described their marriage as "unhappy" changed their description to "happy" when interviewed five years later.

Question 17 of 21

Which of the following groups reports the lowest levels of happiness?

... In a survey by Pew Research, 27 percent of single parents with young children described themselves as "not too happy," while just 8 percent of married parents with young children said the same.

Question 18 of 21

Fact or fiction: Couples who cohabitate before marrying are more likely to stay together than those who don't live together before the wedding.

... Fiction: Couples who cohabitate before marrying are not only more likely to divorce, but also report less happiness than couples who wait until they are married to live together.

Question 19 of 21

Which age group gets the biggest happiness boost from marriage?

... People in the 18-to-29-year-old age group get the biggest happiness boost from marriage, though people of all ages benefit from marriage.

Question 20 of 21

Which of the following scenarios is more likely to lead to divorce?

... A 2011 study found that marriages in which men reported higher levels of happiness than their spouses were more likely to lead to divorce than other marriages.

Question 21 of 21

What happens to most people's happiness levels after a divorce?

... Just as getting married offers only a temporary happiness boost, divorce results in only a short-term happiness decline. After a divorce, a person's happiness levels eventually return to about where they were before the wedding.

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