New Year’s Resolutions for Your Relationship

It seems as though there is a fairly standard list of New Year’s resolutions: lose weight, exercise more, eat healthier, pay off credit card debt, and quit smoking/drinking. Perhaps you’ve gone beyond this list and added things like: spend less time on Facebook or watching TV, get organized, find a better job, fix up the house, stop procrastinating, etc.

Oddly (to us, anyways), although resolutions typically emphasize physical and mental health, they generally ignore relationship health. To address this oversight, here is list of 7 scientifically-validated ways you can improve your relationships...

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Can a Kiss Predict the Future?

According to superstition, the person you kiss at midnight on New Year’s Eve is the person with whom you’ll share your love and affection in the upcoming year. A New Year's Eve kiss allegedly brings good luck for the future of your relationship with the recipient on the other end of your lips…but can a kiss really predict the future?

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30 Things You Should Know About Sex (2012 Edition)

Was 2012 a sexy year for you? It sure was here at ScienceOfRelationships.com. Here are the highlights of our "Year in Sex":

1. Supersize Me: Does Penis Size Matter to Women?
2. Getting Her There: When Are Women Most Likely To Have Orgasms?
3. The Ins and Outs of Sexual Frequency
4. Breaking It Off: Sex-Positive Shops and the Women’s Sex Toy Revolution
5. Is Masturbation Bad For Your Health and Your Relationship?
6. Monkey See, Monkey Do (and by “Do” We Mean “Have Sex”)

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: Recap

Thanks to all of our fans, readers, and contributors for making 2012 a banner year at ScienceOfRelationships.com. We have some outstanding new articles coming in the new year, but here's one last chance to see our "best of" 2012:

1. The More the Merrier?
2. Note to Gotye: It's Probably Better that She Cut You Off
3. Sex in Friendships, Friendship After Sex
4. Let's Talk About Sex...During Sex
5. The Dependency Paradox
6. Body and Mind: How Seemingly Unrelated Physical Experiences Affect Our Relationships
7. Four Signs that Don Draper is Avoidantly Attached
8. Could You Be Loved, and Give Love? Cultural Differences in Pursuing a Partner
9. Bringing Home More Than Just the Bacon: When Work Life Collides with Home Life
10. Now or Later? The Ideal Age to Say “I Do”
11. The Seasons for Sex
12. Breaking Up Bad: The Best and Worst Ways to Break Up
13. How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Show You the Ways
14. Your Partner and You: One Shared Brain
15. Note to Parents of Adolescent Kids: Stay Out if You Want "In"
16. When Are Pick Up Lines Most Effective?
17. How to Make “Couple Friends” (and Why You Should)
18. Evidence to Support a Valid Online Dating Matching Algorithm: My Wish List
19. Pheromone Parties: The Sweet Smell of a Future Partner
20. So Many Fish in the (Online) Sea: Is All This Choice a Good Thing?

2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #1

With the launch of her column Adventures in Dating: Memoirs of a Single Mom this year, Dr. Jennifer Harman has let readers take a peek in her heart, and bedroom, as she chronicles through a scientific lens her return to the dating world. We've been introduced to men such as The Consultant, Mr. Metal Mouth, The Question Mark, Mr. Scuba Man, and The Cheapskate, and learned new terms like Insanimus Guano and Premature Sextaculation. All in all, it's been a fun and educational year. But our favorite from Adventures in Dating... is when Dr. Harman was challenged to reflect on her feelings about polyamory.

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #2

Maybe the only thing more popular than ScienceOfRelationship.com over the last couple of years has been Gotye's catchy song (and video) "Somebody That I Used To Know." And although he exclaims to his lost love "that you didn't need to cut me off," Dr. Sadie Leder explains that it's probably better that she did.

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #3

The third spot on the 2012 Editors' Choice Awards goes to Drs. Laura Vanderdrift and Justin Lehmiller, for their answer to a reader's question about how to navigate a "friends with benefits" relationship. What happens once sex invades a friendship, and what do people ultimately want to happen after hooking up with a friend? See what science has to say...

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #4

We know you like to talk about sex, and the only thing better than talking about sex is talking about sex while you have sex. In one of our most popular articles of the year, Dr. Amy Muise explores how communication in the heat of the moment is related to sexual satisfaction.

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #5

"I love you so much and never want to be apart." "I love you but could use a little space." These quotations reflect two opposite, but common, reactions people have to relationship partners. Such sentiments demonstrate how people both need to connect with others while simultaneously maintaining independence. But how do we balance these opposing needs? Dr. Dylan Selterman explains this "dependency paradox" from the perspective of attachment theory.

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #6

Relationships are complicated. So it seems ridiculous to think that sitting in an unsteady chair, moving in the same direciton as someone, or drinking a hot beverage could influence your relationships. Well, think again. Read this article by Dr. Brent Mattingly in which he discusses how psychological research on embodiment explains how subtle experiences can have a real influence on your relationships.

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #7

It's the holiday season, and that means Don Draper is on the prowl. In our #7 article of 2012, Samantha Joel explores how our favorite advertising exectutive's childhood experiences shaped his attachment style and became the root of many of his "bad" behaviors. So pour yourself a Manhattan (or a Vodka gimlet) and delve into the life of Don Draper.

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #8

With all of her travels, Dr. Michelle Kaufman has become our globetrotting international correspondent, stamping her passport while writing about Korea, Tanzania, Thailand, and Ethiopa in the past year. Have you ever wondered how other cultures' relationships compare to your own? Click below to find out. 

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #9

Going to work sucks. It is bad enough that you have to put up with your inept boss and annoying coworkers, but what happens to your relationship when work follows you home? Dr. Helen Lee Lin explains how bringing that negativity home from the office with you can harm your relationship.

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #10

In the United States, people have been waiting until they are older to tie the knot. With each passing year, perhaps you are wondering: Is there an ideal age to get married? Sonia Ip has the answer.

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Marriage Killer

In one of the Top Ten Articles in the Wall Street Journal for 2012, Elizabeth Bernstein discusses an important dynamic that may undermine your relationship (and it is something you may not realize). Click here for the Top Ten list (the Marriage Killer is #8). For the full original article, please click here.  

What Happens When Your Kid Reads ScienceOfRelationships.com

Thanks to Lisa for sending us this one (from smbc-comic.com). Read more about talking to your kids about sex here and here, and about why people have sex here.

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #11

'Tis the season for sex? Yep. Drs. Patrick and Charlotte Markey explain that winter and summer are the peak seasons for sexual desire, at least according to Google. So stop searching for porn and click below to read this article. PS: It is currrently winter or summer (depending on your current hemisphere) so after reading this article, go do your part for science. 

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #12

Unfortunately, not all relationships stand the test of time. If your relationship needs to end, you should figure out the best way to close it out. Rather than guess your way through it, take the pressure off by letting science and John Sakaluk plan your exit strategy.

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #13

With the holiday season upon us, how are you showing your partner some love? As you may expect, men and women show love in different ways. Let Elizabeth Schoenfeld count the ways as she discusses the evidence from the kitchen and the bedroom.

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2012 Editors' Choice Awards: #14

How is your relationship partner like Google? Stan Treger describes the cognitive strategies couples use as they become closer and rely on their "shared brain."

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