Save Your Marriage From A Wet Towel

Yes, even minor irritants can mar your marital happiness as they pall on both the partners - more so on wives. How and why?

Researchers have said that leaving a wet towel on the bathroom floor may seem a minor issue, but it could wreck a relationship.

Researchers have identified a list of the most annoying habits that can cause rifts between spouses. This new study of minor irritations in domestic life has found that people can almost become "allergic" to a partner's foibles. Failure to control that shrill laugh might end in a marriage-destroying fury.

Among the most annoying habits are failing to hang up towels, leaving a new loo roll on top of the empty one and using a fork as a back-scratcher.

Cringe-inducing endearments such as "babykins" can also cause an adverse reaction. When repeated, a couple, can reach a snapping point. Many irritating habits have been found in the study, and they are the familiar fibre of male-female interactions. They include nose-picking, burping and tatty clothes, in men, and lateness, verbosity and demands for reassurance about clothing, in women.

The study was conducted in the department of communications at Louisville University, Kentucky, which charted the grim "deromanticisation" of more than 160 people's relationships.

The resultant report "Social Allergies in Romantic Relationship" seeks to establish the nature of the link between nasty habits and nasty divorces. The research team, comprising two men and two women, found that women were also more likely to complain about uncouth behaviours and "norm violations", such as drunkenness or flatulence.

"The basic notion that things become more irksome over time is something that has never been looked at before. Relatively minor unpleasant behaviours appear to affect a partner's emotions, in a way that resembles how the physical allergens funcions," said research team leader, Dr Michael Cunningham, a professor at the university.

The first experience is likely to produce a small negative reaction, but repeated contact increases sensitivity. The findings have appeared in the journal, Personal Relationships.

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