Quickie: Words Speak Louder Than Feelings
How a word association test predicted relationship success
Do you have a future with your partner? You don’t need a psychic reading to figure out if your relationship will last — just play a word association game.
Researchers at the University of Rochester used a word association game to find out what respondents really thought of their partners. This method was unique because in similar studies, people were simply asked how they felt about their significant others.
“It really is giving us a unique glimpse into how people were feeling about their partners….”
“The difficulty with that is, that assumes that they know themselves how happy they are, and that’s not always the case,” said researcher Ronald D. Rogge. “To make things worse, a lot of people don’t want to tell you if they’re starting to feel less happy in their relationship.”
In order to get the hidden truth from study participants, Rogge and his colleagues had them supply the name of their partner and two words that related to the person. They were then asked to watch a computer monitor that flashed words describing their partner, along with words that had positive meanings (like “peace” and “sharing”) or negative…
