Calculating the odds of a happy marriage is nothing new, but Professor James Murray of Oxford University has taken it a step further than most. In 700 couples that were studied, Murray and his team were able to predict divorce mathematically with 94% accuracy. The studies were based on 15-minute conversations between the couples on contentious issues and focused on the emotions that were reflected by either partner. A scoring system based on whether the partners demonstrated positive or negative responses was used to make the determination.
According to Murray:
I am still absolutely amazed that human emotions can be put into a mathematical model and that a prediction can be made. What astonished me was that a discussion, sometimes highly charged and emotional, could so easily and usefully be encapsulated. It is trying to assess and quantify how a couple interact by giving them a scoring system … If either the husband or the wife is consistently negative, then they are going to get a divorce.
