TESTS FOR HUSBANDS AND WIVES

The May 2008 issue of the American Psychological Association's Monitor on Psychology contained an article on the Tests for Husbands and Wives developed by Dr. George W. Crane in the late 1930s. This article was mentioned by Dr. Vaughan Bell on the blog Mind Hacks, and shortly thereafter picked up by boingboing. Boingboing reader Tiabla had a copy of the entire test, and posted it to her Flickr photostream. For fun, I transcribed the questions and turned them into this online test.

Dr. Crane surveyed 600 husbands and 600 wives, asking them to list the "chief merits and demerits" regarding their spouses. He summarized the 50 most frequent merits and demerits from each group and weighted them according to his personal bias about which were more important to a harmonious marital relationship. (This personal bias becomes apparent when one discovers that a wife would have to have seven children in order to exceed her husband's score, if each spouse had every merit and no demerits!)

I present this test, therefore, purely for amusement purposes. Remember, the results are based on the values of the 1930s, and are furthermore biased by Dr. Crane's personal views on what is important. So please don't email me to complain if the test calls you a failure as a husband or wife... remember, times and attitudes have changed markedly in the last seven decades!