What is the sexiest thing about a potential mate? Smoldering eyes? Muscular arms? Maybe a sense of humor?
What you should be looking for in a partner is conscientiousness, according to new research published in Psychological Science. A reliable partner can actually make you more money, help you get more promotions at work and keep you happier with your job.
"These associations occurred because more conscientious partners perform more household tasks, exhibit more pragmatic behaviors that their spouses are likely to emulate, and promote a more satisfying home life, enabling their spouses to focus more on work," study authors wrote. "These results demonstrate that the dispositional characteristics of the person one marries influence important aspects of one's professional life."
If you don't exactly have it all together, but you marry someone meticulous, some of that discipline should rub off on you, the study suggests. Just as couples tend to emulate each other's eating habits or fitness regime (like Kevin Spacey's character, Frank, in "House of Cards" when he took up jogging with his wife, Claire), other habits end up becoming a shared trait.
Also, if your partner is persnickety when it comes to household chores, you'll be left with more time to complete other tasks or focus on your income-earning career. "In decades past, similar research has shown married men tend to make more money than single men, possibly because their wives were keeping things together at home," according to New York Magazine's Science of Us.
"Marrying a conscientious partner could at first sound like a recipe for a rigid and lackluster lifestyle; however, in reality, having such a partner is likely to yield personal and professional prosperity," study authors wrote in an email to Science of Us.
