It doesn’t take the proverbial rocket scientist to reach the conclusion that men and women walk differently. The greater pelvic obliquity and less vertical center of mass displacement in women compared with men has long been mentioned as a reason why some men are so distinctly uncool, even rude, staring, etc. as they are wont to do when women walk by.

Abraham Lincoln is credited with the phrase, “Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” Recent research suggests he hit the nail on the head.

A study reported in The Online Times, to be published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, found that when a man meets a woman with blonde hair it’s the man’s cognitive performance that suffers.

File this one under extremely obscure cocktail party chatter. Lower body fat, a not so pleasant euphemism for curvy hips, correlates highly with the amount of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid. These fatty acids are being increasingly shown to be essential for brain development. And they may play a large role in how children’s brain develop in the early years.

So anyone who has read more than a week’s worth of blogs on this site knows that most everyone at eHarmony Labs is a proponent of the idea that similarity is a compelling factor in predicting who will have a successful long-term romantic relationship. Now comes a new study that suggests people vote for politicians that they perceive have similar personalities as themselves.

A study in the recent Journal of Social and Personal Relationships looked at how relationships began (love at first sight or when romance developed after a friendship), personality similarity and long-term relationship satisfaction. There were some notable differences and similarities in long-term relationships based on how the relationship began.

The path by which Viagra became a staple in our culture may not be as simple a process as finding a pharmacological solution for a clear medical problem. Angus McLaren, in The New Scientist (28 April 2007), reviews the course of impotence across history and makes an interesting argument that our definitions of impotence reflect much about our cultural values. By evaluating attitudes toward impotence we can better understand what is considered healthy for men, their relationships and society.

Whether or not you recall it as being from the New Testament (Acts 20:35), most everyone has heard the maxim that it is better to give than to receive. A new study by Stephanie Brown (University of Michigan) suggests that, at least when it comes to social support, giving is in fact better than receiving. Particularly if living a long life is a goal you have.

A post from Ms. Setrakian on this blog on 3 October 2007 pointed out that aspects of a marriage have a seemingly direct impact on the health of women. A study just published suggests that it is not just the health of women that is impacted by a bad marriage. Bad marriages, bad friendships, difficult relationships with relatives, they all seem to have negative health consequences.

Kissing is a near universal phenomenon occurring between sexual and/or romantic partners in over 90% of human cultures. While almost everyone kisses there is very little information around on why people kiss or what makes a kiss spectacular.

The label “friends with benefits” (FWB) is a relatively recent term for a type of relationship that has probably existing in some form or another for quite some time. FWB refers to the relationship between two people who agree to have a sexual relationship with the stated goal being that a more formal relationship will not develop.

Much of my academic career prior to coming to the vaunted Labs of eHarmony.com was spent trying to determine whether taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was a good or a bad thing for post-menopausal women, specifically whether HRT may diminish the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. Over the course of 12 years I had been convinced that HRT did great things, then thought it may possibly even be harmful, then I was simply confused. Now comes an unexpected finding suggesting a positive role for HRT.

eHarmony Labs Scientific Advisor, Dr. John Cacioppo, has been publishing some extremely important papers that have done much to identify the causes and consequences of loneliness. Now Dr. Cacioppo has worked with a group of researchers to show that people with chronically high levels of loneliness show alterations in their pattern of gene expression. This is the first time that a social epidemiological risk factor has been linked to genome wide transcriptional activity.

For those of us who have spent much time in protestant worship services the hymn referenced in the title of this blog is one many of us probably remember singing with unabashed gusto. This hymn captures the feeling of not only surviving difficult times but absolutely thriving through them when we take the time to be thankful. This hymn serves as an effective reminder to systematically reflect on the events of our lives that happen that we don’t deserve, that we thoroughly enjoy and that were done for us intentionally.