052: How to Maintain a Healthy Marriage

In this previously aired episode of The G & E Show, Grant and Elena discuss social researcher Shaunti Feldhahn who is on a mission to debunk some of the rampant myths she says cloud perceptions about marriage and divorce.

In her new book, “The Good News About Marriage,” the author tackles a number of misconceptions that she believes are damaging to the institution of marriage: that half of marriages end in divorce, that church-going couples divorce just as often as the general public and that most marriages aren’t happy.

Feldhahn, who conducted an extensive eight-year research study on the subject, claims that the actual divorce rate has never even gotten close to 50 percent, that churchgoers have significantly lower divorce rates and that most marriages are actually successful. “One of the biggest patterns that I’ve seen over the years as a social researcher is that there’s one common denominator about whether marriage survives or fails,” she told TheBlaze. “If a couple thinks they’re going to make it, they generally do. The outcome is very different if they think, ‘This is never going to change. We’re never going to make it.’”

The perception that half of all marriages end in divorce, she says, results in a cumulative cultural negativity about marriage.