Test Predicts Whether Relationships Will Last

[MicArmstrong]

"The results showed that volunteers who found it easy to associate their partner with bad things and difficult to associate the partner with good things were more likely to separate over the next year.

The test also did a better job of predicting a breakup than did an initial survey in which the researchers asked participants to report on the strength of their relationships before the study began."

I can't post url's yet. The article is on Live Science. The Title is same as this post.

 

[Inkachu]

Of course association has a lot to do with attraction and chemistry and all that. If you were attacked and beaten up by some guy named Mike with black hair and a tattoo when you were a kid, chances are, if you meet some guy named Mike with black hair and a tattoo, you aren't going to feel tingles of giggly attraction running down your spine.

Association is powerful stuff. And most of it is unconscious/subconscious. I still have an aversion to anyone resembling one of my ex's who abused me. It's not the other guys' fault, but my brain just says "NO" if I see someone who looks anything like him. It's a protective trait that we all have. Our brains learn "this is good" and "this is bad".

 

[MicArmstrong]

Can you mention some of the specific features that you associate with him? Could they be features that indicate high-testosterone levels, like a prominent brow and long jaw line?

 

[Inkachu]

LOL no...it's things like goatees and baseball caps and beer bellies. He was like a spitting image of Larry the Cable Guy. I can't even look at that guy on TV because of it.

 

[Thunder Peel]

Tests can only tell you so much. If two people aren't willing to put the other first and make a daily commitment to love and honor them then ultimately it will fail.

 

[Rhye]

With research here are some things I look at:

I like to see the sampling size, how they found the participants, where they found them, the SES level of the participants, the measurement tools and the credibility of the researcher. I do not want to dismiss the research or state is is by any means not valid, but even Live Science, has some studies that are worthless.
Then again, don't mind me, I like reading research and picking it apart. Its what I'm suppose to be doing right now I guess.

With that said, I agree with LT. And I hope at the end the researchers stated this or some form of it.

 

[MicArmstrong]

Tests can only tell you so much. If two people aren't willing to put the other first and make a daily commitment to love and honor them then ultimately it will fail.

If a person associates their SO with negative concepts, then they do not highly esteem him. If you do not esteem someone, are you likely to love and honor him?

 

[Thunder Peel]

If a person associates their SO with negative concepts, then they do not highly esteem him. If you do not esteem someone, are you likely to love and honor him?

Then it begs the question of why they would bother to be in a relationship with that person in the first place.

 

[Luther073082]

If you ask me this test kind of states the obvious. If you find it easier to associate your partner with bad things then it is to associate them with good things then its obvious that there are clear problems in your relationship is on the rocks.

 

[Inkachu]

I agree that a long-term relationship is about commitment, not what reminds so-and-so of such-and-such. I was just being a little facetious in my example. To say I wouldn't date or marry a guy with a goatee and a basecall cap would be completely untrue. I'd just have to get over my intial "oy...he looks like my ex..." thing.

 

[penNpaper]

Tests can only tell you so much. If two people aren't willing to put the other first and make a daily commitment to love and honor them then ultimately it will fail.

^this

God Bless,
Drew

 

[MicArmstrong]

Then it begs the question of why they would bother to be in a relationship with that person in the first place.

Remember, these indicators are often subconscious. The person may feel obligated to be with someone because they have already been with that person for a couple of months, or because that person did something significant for them, and they feel indebted to that person, or that their happiness will wear off quickly. They may also be so excited that they have anyone that they fail to recognize the signs that they are not truly happy with the person. It is the idea of the person that they like.