Dating expert claims small habit can ‘predict with 91 percent accuracy’ whether a couple will last

A dating expert has claimed that this one habit can predict whether a couple will eventually get a divorce.

When it comes to making a relationship work, everyone and their mom has an opinion on how you go from a first date to happily ever after.

That happily ever after is often viewed as marriage, but making a marriage work in the long term can also prove to be difficult.

A dating coach on social media, who claims to have a PhD in Psychology, has made reference to an old study in which an American psychologist and professor was able to accurately predict the rate of divorce in a slew of couples.

The dating coach, who goes only by Cleopatra on social media, emphasized one key part of the study, that was conducted by John M Gottman and Robert Levenson in 1992.

Keeping a marriage alive and working can prove to be difficult for some couples(Getty Stock Image)

In her post, the social media dating expert stated: “A 12-year study found one habit that predicts with 91% accuracy whether a couple will stay together or break apart.”

“A long-term study by the Gottman Institute followed couples for over a decade and found something surprising.

“It wasn’t how often they said ‘I love you’. It wasn’t how good their communication techniques were. It wasn’t intimacy. It wasn’t shared interests.

“It was this. How often they turned toward each other’s ‘bids for connection'.

“A bid is small. Almost invisible. ‘Look at this.’ A random joke. A sigh after a long day. A hand reaching under the table. A comment like, “You won’t believe what happened.

“In that moment, one partner is quietly asking: Do you see me? Do I matter right now? And the other has three options:

“Turn toward (engage) Turn away (ignore) Turn against (respond negatively).

“In stable, happy marriages, partners turned toward each other about 86% of the time.

“In couples who later divorced, it was closer to 33%.”

The online dating expert gave a rather simplified view on the overall study, however.

The institute’s explanation of the study details that there were at least six other key things couples were measured against regarding their likelihood of staying together.

The study found that there were multiple ways to deduce whether a couple would likely get a divorce (Getty Stock Image)

Affection towards the spouse was one of them and is likely the point the dating coach is making, while the other six were:

• Negativity toward the spouse.
• Expansiveness, or how expressive each partner was during the interview.
• “We-ness” versus separateness, or how much the spouses saw themselves as part of a team as opposed to emphasizing their independence.
• Gender stereotypes, or how much like “traditional” men and women the spouses were in their emotional expressions and responses.
• Volatility, or intensity of their feelings toward each other when dealing with conflict (Chaos or Glorifying the Struggle).
• Marital disappointment and disillusionment.

The institute explained: “Some of the variables that increased the likelihood of a couple staying together included:

“One spouse’s expression of fondness towards their partner.

“Both partners’ expression of “we-ness”.

“Expression of positivity or happiness in their marriage (especially on the part of the husband in heterosexual relationships).