A smile in your past photographs is an indication that your marital life will be successful, says scientists.

Psychologists have found that how much people smile in pictures in the past can predict their later success in marriage.

The researchers asked almost 650 adults for pictures taken during their final year school and rate the brightness of their smiles.

The scientists, from DePauw University in Indiana, also asked the volunteers, between 21 and 87, whether they had ever been divorced, and subsequently matched their answers with the data on their smiles.

Those with the weakest smiles were more than three times as likely to have been through a divorce than those who beamed their way through their teenage years, the journal Motivation and Emotion reports.

"Smile intensity predicted whether or not participants divorced at some point in their lives," the researchers said, adding: "The less intensely participants smiled, the more likely they would be divorced later in life."

A second trial, which included pictures taken when people were as young as five confirmed the finding.

Overall, the results indicate that people who frown in photos are five times more likely to get a divorce than people who smile.

The researchers believe that those who are generally happier are therefore more likely to try to work through difficulties in relationships and marriages.

(Agencies via Xinhua April 16, 2009)