Seventy-one couples were filmed telling the story of how they met. The share of time they spent laughing together, not one at the other's jokes, went with how close and how good they rated the relationship, and for men it tracked commitment and passion especially. Evidence: worth trying
That's a correlation: laughing together may be a sign of a good match rather than a way to make one. But it points at something useful. Performing jokes is one-way. Finding the thing you both find funny is two-way, and two-way is what the closeness findings that hold up have in common.
Same theme: Day to day
Day to day
Answer the small stuff
When your partner points something out, a bird, a headline, a thing about their day, look up and say something. Three seconds.
no timeEvidence: worth trying
Day to day
Do something new together
Ninety minutes a week, something neither of you has done. A climbing wall, a cooking class, a town you've never been to. Slightly out of your depth is the point.
90 min a weekEvidence: decent
Day to day
Hug for a slow count of twenty
Before a hard day, or a hard conversation, one long hug. Count to twenty in your head. No talking.
1 minEvidence: decent