Couples find that all's fair in love

HAVING the last word in a heated debate may feel fantastic, but married couples are taking a more conciliatory approach to settling scores.

According to new research, couples tend to take turns in letting their other half win an argument.

Professor Alistair Munro and colleagues at Royal Holloway College London said in a paper to be presented at the Royal Economic Society's annual conference that they posed a series of questions and presented a number of choices to 82 couples to see how they make decisions.

Couples were asked to choose between options such as karting for two or dinner and theatre for two and then asked to resolve any disputed preferences.

After they completed separate questionnaires, the partners were brought together and asked to make decisions jointly, using identical sets of choices.

The results showed a partner who won one dispute was half as likely to win the next dispute, indicating that many couples were taking it in turns to win.

The society's website said: "The fact that we see turn-taking suggests that married couple are also focused on maintaining fairness in their relationships."