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Tuesday, January 27, 2009 - 7:00 PM
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire, to study the intimate dialogue between romantic partners, psychologists have turned to parsing instant messages. In a new study [pdf], researchers report that the words couples send each other across cyberspace are good indications of relationship health. http://louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
The researchers
asked 68 dating couples (not surprisingly, the average age was only 19)
to submit transcripts of their IMs to each other over a ten day period.
The couples were also asked to rate their relationship satisfaction and
report six months later whether they were still dating or not.
After analyzing pages upon pages of IM conversations, the team
concluded that women who often use the word “I” in IMs are more likely
to be in happy, stable relationships. http://louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com Guys also seem to dig gals who
say “I,” reporting greater satisfaction when dating women who referred
to themselves in the first person. The researchers explain this
correlation with the usual “women tend to be more emotionally
expressive.”
The study also found that positive
negations, such as “not happy,” and positive sarcasm from men, such as
“oh, great” were correlated with relationships headed for the
gutter—further support for the theories of psychologist John Gottman, the “relationship predictor” featured in Blink who notes that signs of scorn or sarcasm are a slippery slope to breakup-ville. http://louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
All of which prompted one astute commenter to ask, “What about ‘I am not happy?’” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
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