"Admit it. Sometimes you just need a big strong man." -Xander Harris

Buffy fans should appreciate that reference. It's one of my favorite lines to quote around the house, whenever my wife needs help opening jars.

Today, I said it to my daughter when she tried to open the orange juice herself, which earned a side-eye from the wife. It also led me to think about a possible research hypothesis.

IdeaIdea

I've heard that grip strength has been declining in men, to the point where there's barely a difference anymore between men and women.

Is it possible that something as seemingly trivial as not being any more able to open jars, is reducing the rate of relationship formation?

This was one area where men have historically been able to clearly demonstrate some value.

Empirical difficultiesEmpirical difficulties

I have no idea what the data looks like on either side of this question (grip strength or relationship formation), so I can't say much about specific data problems.

However, there is definitely going to be an issue with "the dreaded third thing". In particular, I'm concerned with how to isolate the impact of grip strength decline from other effects of testosterone decline. Ideally, we'd be able to do a longitudinal study of men, where their grip strengths and testosterone levels are recorded, as well as their relationship status over time.

Since there's no chance of doing that study, the best hope would be to put together some population level numbers over time and see if relationship formation rates still have a correlation with grip strength, after controlling for average testosterone levels.

I hope you enjoyed this half-baked idea. I mentioned to @denlillaapan that it might be fun to share ideas like this on SN. In all likelihood, no one will ever take these ideas any further, but they still might prompt fun discussions.