London: A love test designed by scientists can tell what the chances are of a relationship being a success.
Researchers have used the quiz to predict the outcome of whether more than 50 couples would split up over a 12 month period.
The test uses a psychological technique to discover what people really think of their partners by how easy they find it to associate them with positive or negative words.
If someone found it easier to automatically associate pleasant words with their better half, the scientists discovered they had a stronger relationship and were more likely to stay together, reports the Telegraph.
However "relationship decay" could still kick in and increase the latent "break up risk".
Of the 116 people who took part, 19 split up from their partners, equivalent to 16 percent, the figure predicted by the team of researchers from the University of Rochester in the US.
Study author Ronald Rogge said: "What really excited me in our results was that our measure seemed to do a better job of predicting outcomes than what the people told us about their relationships.
"People who exhibited negative feelings to their partners were about seven times more likely to break up over the next year."
For this test, the volunteers were asked to fill in a questionnaire about their relationship as well as undergo the word association test.
Previous studies of relationships have found it difficult to find out how much someone is satisfied in their relationship because people will tell scientists different things to how they are really feeling.
However, scientists believe their new test, using word association and a time limit, gave them a true reflection of the participant's feelings.
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