If you want to know whether your relationship will last, don't listen to those sweet nothings. But do pay close attention to the rest of your partner's language.

如果你想知道自己和另一半的關系能否持久，那些“甜蜜的廢話”就不用聽了，倒是不妨去聽聽另一半的“閑言碎語”。

According to scientists, it is possible to predict whether a couple will break up by using a word association test - and it's much more accurate than simply asking them how they feel about each other.

科學家近日指出，通過一項所謂的“文字聯系測試”便有可能預測出兩人是否會分手——而這種方法得出的結論要比直接詢問雙方感受得出的結論更加精確。

In a study, volunteers were shown positive words, such as "peace" and "sharing", and negative words, such as "grief" and "hostile", alongside words they had supplied to describe their partner. In the first test, they were asked to press a button whenever they saw either positive words or partner-related words, and in the second, to do it whenever they saw negative words or partner-related words. The test had a time limit.

研究中，志愿者們面對的詞匯不僅有自己曾用來描述另一半的詞匯，還有積極詞如“平和”、“樂于分享的”，也有消極詞如“悲傷”、“懷有敵意的”。在第一項測試中，志愿者被要求一看到積極或者自己曾用來形容另一半的詞匯就壓下按鈕，而在第二項測試中，志愿者需要在看到消極或者自己曾用來形容另一半的詞匯按下按鈕。測試均有時間限制。

Study author Ronald Rogge said: "What really excited me in our results was that our measure seemed to do a better job of predicting outcomes than what the people told us about their relationships. People who exhibited negative feelings to their partners were about seven times more likely to break up over the next year."

研究論文撰稿人羅納德-羅格稱：“讓我振奮的是，在預測二人關系方面，我們的這種計量方法似乎要比聽人們講述他們的關系得到的效果好一些。那些在實驗中表示出對另一半消極感受的志愿者在第二年分手的可能性要比普通情況高出7倍還多。

"It really is giving us a unique glimpse into how people were feeling about their partners - giving us information that they were unable or unwilling to report. A lot of people don't want to tell you if they're starting to feel less happy in their relationship," Rogge said.

“‘文字聯系測試’讓我們得以窺到人們對另一半的真實感受——該測試提供了人們不能或者不愿訴說的信息。許多人開始對自己和戀人的關系不甚滿意時并不想告訴你真實情況，”羅格說道。