According to the New York Times, the researchers were able to pinpoint the identity of a user’s significant other, and the strength of their bond by looking at whether they had a “high dispersion” within their social networks on Facebook.
In layman’s terms, high dispersion occurs when couples share more than just current mutual friends in the city in which they both live, but share friends from various parts of each other’s lives.
If this isn’t the case, the research found that you and yours are 50 percent more likely to call it quits within the next two months than those lovebirds that do have a high dispersion. Yikes!
Therefore, the odds of your relationship lasting are boosted if you’re not only Facebook friends with your lover’s roommate, or co-worker, but also happen to be friends with their old camp chums, grade school pals, or cousins.
Ominous as this study might be, it’s worth noting it was carried out so Facebook could better understand the relationships between its users in order to provide them with more tailored newsfeeds and ads.
Facebook Can Predict Whether Your Relationship Will Last was originally published on wzakcleveland.com
