Test love to help guess marriage

Scientists have developed a new kind of love test, which is believed to better guide a relationship's success.

According to researchers from the University of Florida (USA), the subconscious reaction to a photo of a mate can be a reliable sign to surmise marriage results. Professor James McNulty, who led the study, said the new test will measure the true feelings of newlyweds about their spouse, instead of what they said to others or excuse yourself.

McNulty and colleagues interviewed 135 newly married couples right after their marriage. These people are required to evaluate their marriage at "good", "bad", "satisfied" and "dissatisfied" levels.

What a newcomer thinks is his or her partner's feelings may not be what they really feel.(Artwork: Thinkstock)

The research team then gave volunteers a new form of love test to measure the true response of couples to each other. Specifically, each subject will be shown a picture of their partner in 1/3 second and answer questions as quickly as possible with certain phrases that express positive or negative emotions like " great "," precious " or " horrible "," scary " . The speed at which these questions are answered is considered a sign of the owner's true feelings.

This type of test is based on the principle of association in psychology. The hypothesis states that, after browsing a photo of a mate, newlyweds will have either a positive or negative psychological state. If the subject is in a positive psychological state, they will use positive words like "great" or "precious" to respond more quickly to negative words like "horrible" or "scary" , and opposite.

The team found that the conscious answers of all newcomers were positive and proved very happy with their relationship. But, the subconscious reactions drawn from the love test are very different.

Researchers interviewed the aforementioned couples every 6 months for the next 4 years. The result is that, on average, people with negative subconscious reactions are more likely to declare they are unhappy if the marriage continues. A few of them even divorced.

According to the authors, their multiple-choice forms measure the existence or absence of negative emotions. However, they confessed, the research is still not developed enough to be applicable to people before they get married.