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'Love test' predicts good marriage

Summary

29 November 2013

Scientists have invented a new "love test" that they believe could predict the success of a relationship. The research, published in the journal Science, suggests that a reaction to an image of a partner could give a useful indication of the future state of a marriage.

Reporter:

Pallab Ghosh

Report

The researchers interviewed more than 100 newly-weds, all of whom said they were very happy with their partner - as one might imagine.

However, a test of their unconscious feelings towards each other showed that some of them had negative emotions which they haven’t admitted to - even to themselves. 

The test involved showing one of the couple a photograph of their partner for a third of a second. They then had to answer as quickly as possible whether certain words such as great, awesome, horrible and scary were positive or negative words. 

If they had unconscious negative feelings towards their partner, they were quick to identify the negative words, and vice versa. 

Researchers found that those with unconscious negative feelings had them gradually surface and they admitted to being unhappy in follow-up interviews three or four years later.