The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology indicates that the experts studied, during the years 1989-2009, data on 154 couples in the middle age and the elderly. Every five years, the spouses would come to the laboratory and discuss in the presence of researchers the latest developments in their relationship, and what they like or cause disagreement between them.
The researchers assessed the couple’s different attitudes during a 15-minute discussion, identifying individual and shared positive and negative feelings based on what the couple said, as well as facial expressions, tone of voice and body language. The researchers then identified the common positive feelings the couple experienced when watching videos of their conversations. The researchers also studied the video recordings for signs of nonverbal synchrony — gestures that express love and affection between spouses, such as smiles, nods, and leaning toward the other.
The researchers found that during shared positive emotions, the couple’s heartbeats were synchronized. It also turns out that the high level of overall positive emotions and mental connection in the spouses made the appearance of health problems smoother and helps to increase life expectancy.