The happier and more content a wife is in a marriage, the happier the husband will also be, regardless of his feelings about the union, according to a new study.

Deborah Carr, a professor in the Department of Sociology, School of Arts and Science, and Vicki Freedman, a research professor at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, co-authored the study, done by the two Big Ten universities.

The new study differs somewhat from previous research because is analyzes the personal feeling of both wives and husbands to identify how their varying appraisals of their nuptials influence their psychological well-being.

The data of 394 couples were looked at in this study. At least one of the spouses was 60 years or above, and the couples were married for an average of 39 years.

The study found that the wive’s contentment was more important in the overall level of satisfaction in a marriage for both spouses. The study also found that although wives became less happy when their husbands became sick, the level of happiness in husbands didn’t change if their wives became ill.

“I think it comes down to the fact that when a wife is satisfied with the marriage she tends to do a lot more for her husband, which has a positive effect on his life. Men tend to be less vocal about their relationships and their level of marital unhappiness might not be translated to their wives,” said Carr in a statement.

The findings of the study are published in the Journal of Marriage and Family.