It’s ideal to have a decent sense of humor. Being funny increases your attractiveness to possible partners, especially if you’re a man, according to a large body of studies from numerous cultures. However, how much of a role does comedy play once the courting phase is over and you are in a committed relationship? Positive humor, such as using it to lighten up your date, can boost a dating couple’s relationship pleasure. While aggressive humor—teasing and making fun of your partner—has the opposite effect. These emotions might fluctuate day to day depending on how each pair employs humor. Although long-term partnerships, including marriages, frequently have shared humor, these traits do not necessarily indicate longer marriages or higher levels of marital happiness. Not surprisingly, the research that produced this finding also revealed that couples with fewer children laugh more often than couples with more children. Another study involving 3,000 married couples from five different countries found that having a funny companion made both husbands and wives happier. But when it came to their marital happiness, the wives were shown to cherish humor more than the husbands did.
