I found three pictures of couples: two are labeled “before marriage” (leading me to believe they eventually got married) and the other is a photo of a wedding in progress.

As I looked at the pictures, I suddenly recalled a book by Dr. Paul Ekman. I read it a long time ago but it suddenly returned to my memory. Dr. Ekman interviewed hundreds of engaged couples to predict who would stay together. When they followed up years later with the couples, Dr. Ekman’s predictions proved to be startling accurate.

The best predictor of marital felicity wasn’t anything the couples said to one another or how simpatico they seemed. It was these quick fleeting facial expressions that Dr. Ekman called microexpressions. Usually they were not deliberate and often the person did not realize their expression had briefly changed. All the interviews were videotaped so they could be watched back in slow motion to identify various microexpressions. If I remember correctly, eye-rolling specifically was a huge red flag. Dr. Ekman equated this expression with contempt.  But it was a huge predictor of a marriage that was doomed to fail.

Anyway, that doesn’t help us much here, except to say that pictures can sometimes be deceiving.  It would be interesting to know if these were happy marriages.

Photo by C.A. Richmond.

What do you think? Were they destined for happiness?