Bizzare Research: Fight with your spouse & live longer

This post is the first in the series of bizzare scientific researches I come across.

New York:
Researchers at University of Michigan School of Public Health and its psychology department released preliminary findings that the couples that fight, live more. The research was conducted over 17 years following the lives of 192 couples. The couples fell into four categories: where both partners expressed anger when they felt unfairly attacked, where neither partner expressed their anger, and one category each for where the wife suppressed her feelings and where the husband did so. The study shows that 13 people out of 26 pairs where both partners suppressed their feelings died earlier, as opposed to 41 people among the remaining 166 pairs. The lead scientist claims that resentment was the real threat and suppressing anger towards your partner leads to resentment.

My opinion - tell me something new. I don't understand what would trigger a research like this and what researcher would devote 17 years of his professional life behind such a study. Imagine the scenario - the scientist has a big fight with his spouse, all pissed off at her, enters his study lab, gathers a group of helpless RA's under him and starts the reasearch. Later he realizes how meaningless it is, but decides to continue it for 17 years out of embarrassment. That's the best I can make out of this research and it took me less then 10 minutes to do so...lol!!!

Picture courtsey of Times Of India.