What helps you pick Right Person For You ?

Los Angeles, May 01: The so-called ‘love hormone’ oxytocin, which is linked to a mother’s tender feelings for her child and long-term devotion between partners, can play a crucial role in picking Mr (or Ms) Right, say researchers
A new study has found that men and women who smell a whiff of oxytocin rate strangers as more attractive.
When oxytocin courses through our blood, "we are more likely to see people we don’t know in a more positive light," says Angeliki Theodoridou, a psychologist at the University of Bristol, UK, and the study’s lead researcher.
To reach the conclusion, scientists tested 96 men and women in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial, reports New Scientist.
After participants got either a spritz of oxytocin or a placebo, they rated pictures of 48 men and women for attractiveness and 30 for trustworthiness. Her team also tested for mood.
Following the procedure, researchers found that volunteers who received oxytocin rated male and female strangers as both more attractive and trusting.
Researchers did not examine how oxytocin could affect social judgements, but Theodoridou speculates that the hormone dampens brain activity in a region involved in processing fearful emotions, called the amygdala.
Although Theodoridou’s study shows that oxytocin acts similarly on men and women when rating strangers, sex differences could emerge in real-world situations, says Jennifer Bartz, a psychologist at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York.

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• Why We're Attracted to Strangers (abcnews.go.com)

Money management in a relationship

New Delhi, April 29: How you handle money at the beginning of your marriage can have an enormous impact on the rest of your life.

"Fifty percent of all marriages end in dissolution and the number one reason for that is financial pressures," says debt expert Howard Dvorkin. There's evidence that the divorce rate has been diminishing for a couple of decades and may be closer to a third than a half. Dvorkin, who runs the Consolidated Credit Counseling Services, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has seen many marriages destroyed by money problems.

So, clear up the cash at the very beginning, and you can stop all of those arguments before they escalate out of control and build a prosperous future. Here's how...
Pay off the wedding expenses as soon as possible. The longer the debt lingers, the more it prevents you from accomplishing what you really want. Interest rates are increasing, so any debt you are carrying is likely to start costing more. Look at all the other debts you have as a couple and develop a plan for paying it off.

Develop a bill-paying system that works for you. It doesn't really matter whether you both agree to put all of your bills into the same shoebox, or use the latest in Internet banking, as long as you have a system that keeps you paying everything on time. Couples who are sharing their finances for the first time often wind up paying bills late just because they haven't got organized and that will affect their credit reports and scores.

Focus on your credit reputation. You'll both need good credit scores to buy that first family car or house. If one of you has a clean credit history and the other doesn't, keep those credit cards separate, says Dvorkin. The person who already has a good credit score can help the spouse build a better credit history by encouraging him or her to start with a secured credit card and then getting a regular credit card and making timely payments. Adding the "bad credit" spouse to the "good credit" spouse's cards won't help rebuild the weak credit score, but could hurt the good score.

Keep some checking accounts separate too. If you're both used to earning and spending your own money and have decided to kick in together for family finances, keep three checking accounts. One for each spouse and the household account, to which they both send money to cover shared expenses.

Talk about it all. Come up with a specific amount for purchases that are big and require you to discuss and agree to them together. Below that amount, each can spend the money without asking. New couples should have many discussions about their financial goals, too; it's easier to make the household money work if both partners are committed to the same ideal. Even if one spouse is the money person and the other isn't, set aside some time every month to discuss the family budget so both know where the money's coming from and where it's going. Even the spouse who doesn't manage the family money should know where it is.

Brad Pitt had dumped Jennifer Aniston due lesbian fears

Melbourne, April 28: Making a rather surprising revelation, an investigative celebrity blogger and biographer has claimed that Brad Pitt dumped Jennifer Aniston because he thought she was a lesbian.


Writing on his blog, Ian Halperin, revealed that a source named Toni (who is reportedly a friend of Angelina Jolie) said Pitt started dating Jolie because his marriage to former ‘Friends’ star wasn’t fulfilling enough.


Halperin also claimed that the ‘Troy’ star finally pulled the string on his relationship with Aniston because she never wanted to have sex with him.


“Brad likes to have sex a lot and Jennifer never wanted to sleep with him,” The Daily Telegraph quoted Toni as saying.


He added: “He started to speculate that she was gay, though he never caught her with another woman or anything like that. He was very frustrated for a long time. Then he met Angelina, who is insatiable in bed, and the rest is history.”


He further revealed that stories about Jennifer not wanting kids were just a ploy by Jolie to justify the affair.


The insider said: “Brad always said that was a lie. Jen actually was ready to settle down and have kids the day Friends wrapped. That’s not why he left her. He really did love Jen but she just wasn’t fulfilling his needs.


“I don’t really know Jen and I found it hard to believe she swings both ways. When Brad confided his suspicions, I told him, ‘no way!’

“But when she started dating John Mayer, I thought hey maybe there is something to Brad’s theory. Everybody knows that Mayer is gay. Not a big secret. I can see the appeal of him hooking up with Jennifer but what does she have to gain by dating him if she’s straight?”