When It Comes To Love, Words Matter
By MyDaily. Posted on .
Forget chemistry, similar values, having the same favorite movies or any of the usual signs we look for to see if a date may blossom into something long-term. What if the key to compatibility is in our words, or, more specifically, the words between our words?
James Pennebaker and Molly Ireland, psychologists at the University of Texas-Austin, decided to take a look at how function words were used by couples in various stages of courtship. What are function words? They're hard to explain, but basically, they're the things that make whole thoughts out of the information we want to convey. Words like the, a, be, anything, that, will, him and and. Where you put them in a sentence shapes how you actually speak. But, according to the findings, it also could be an indicator of whom you'll fall in love with. MyDaily: What Teen Sex Survey Says About Monogamy
In the name of science, these researchers had pairs of college students speed-date while a computer analyzed their speech for these function words. Even though everyone's conversations sounded the same, they all had different levels of function-word usage. The people whose levels matched were four times as likely to want to see each other again.
But wait, there's more! When function words were measured in brand-new couples using their online chats to see if they matched or not, 54 percent of those whose patterns did not match weren't dating three months later. Guess how many of those couples whose used function words similarly were still together? Eighty percent. MyDaily: The Truth About Online Dating From People Who Have Done It
We all know how cute/annoying it is when a couple starts sounding like each other, right? I guess it's time to stop making fun, because maybe that's what got them together in the first place.
You want to know the best part about all this research? You can test it out yourself. All you need are chats or emails between you and your beau, and this wonderful website set up by the researchers, and you too can find out just how language-compatible your relationship is. Come on, it's science! MyDaily: Science Says You Can Think Yourself Happy
Written by Emily V. Gordon for MyDaily
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