When beautiful women marry plain (or even ugly) men, something magical happens: They're both happier. Why? Men place much value on beauty, while women want a husband who is supportive and positive.

And the opposite is also true. Men who believe they are better looking than their wives tend to be more disgruntled and have more negative feelings about their marriage.

It's long been known that early in a relationship, two people who are equally gorgeous tend to be attracted to each other. But what about couples who have been together longer and have long passed the very earliest stages of a relationship? Led by Jim McNulty from the University of Tennessee, the researchers found the role of physical beauty for well-established couples is more of a mystery. Basically, looks do matter--but in a totally different way.

The study: The Tennessee team examined 82 newlywed couples for facial attractiveness and the quality of their marriage. Each of the couples had gotten married during the previous six months, but had been together for nearly three years before their wedding. The wife was more attractive in about a third of the couples, the husband more attractive in another third, and the rest of the couples were equal in their attractiveness.

The results: While men who married pretty women are content to bask in the glory of their partner's beauty, men who are more attractive than their wives are more likely to offer less emotional and practical support to their partner, reports London's Daily Mail.

Why? Study leader Jim McNulty points to evolutionary perspectives. "Attractive men have available to them more short-term mating opportunities," he told the Daily Mail. "This may make them less satisfied and less committed to the marital relationship." For some men, a beautiful wife is all about prestige. "Men are rated as more likeable and friendly when they have a wife who is very attractive," Strathclyde University psychologist Alastair Ross told the Mail.

Bottom line: What may appear as a mismatch to the human eye is really a match made in heaven.

The study findings were published in the Journal of Family Psychology.

--From the Editors at Netscape