Scientists from the University of Illinois conducted an experiment on 376 couples in love. They tried to understand how people’s feelings change over time and observed each pair for about 9 months. As a result of the experiment, 4 main types of couples were identified.
1. Conflicting but passionate
This is your type of relationship if:
You spend quite a bit of time together.
Your meetings are always bright and full of passion.
Your union is characterized by frequent quarrels and passionate reconciliation.
The level of your feelings is constantly changing.
You run away for a while, start missing each other, and rush into each other’s arms again.
Such couples are constantly in a state of “everything is complicated,” but they don’t break up more often than other types of couples.
2. Drama lovers
This is your type of relationship if:
There are many ups and downs in your relationship.
You tend to make decisions based on some negative experience from the past or from life beyond the boundaries of the relationship.
For most of the time you spend together, you talk about the relationship.
You prefer to spend your free time separately from each other, each with their own friends.
Members of such couples break up twice as often as others. Less than half of such couples participating in the experiment got married.
3. Party people
This is your type of relationship if:
You often communicate through social networks.
You are a very sociable couple and have many friends you hang out with together.
The ideal evening for you is to play Monopoly with friends, cook dinner together, or hang out in a nightclub until dawn.
You are comfortable talking about anything with each other.
Such relationships are considered quite strong because they are based on friendly feelings. 2/3 of couples in the experiment got married.
4. Oriented toward each other
This is your type of relationship if:
You spend a lot of time together.
You have common hobbies and interests.
You deliberately make decisions regarding the development of your relationship.
You have the same views on where and how to spend your vacation.
You try to resolve conflicts by looking for a compromise.
This type of relationship turned out to be the happiest: 90% of the participating couples created strong families.
What did the scientists conclude?
Based on the results of the study, the scientists came to fairly clear conclusions. The feelings of “conflicting but passionate“ burn and subside quite quickly. Constant struggles among ”drama lovers“ also lead to breakups. But “party people” and those ”oriented toward each other” create strong families in most cases.
Of course, the ideal formula does not exist, and everyone decides how to love. But understanding the type of your relationship will definitely lead to positive changes.
Bonus: If separation in your relationship is inevitable, let it be only like this:
Source: BrightSide
