Who said romance is dead? Italian scientists out of Bocconi University have found a way to use machine learning, or A.I., to determine whether a couple’s relationship will live or die.
The results were based on input from more than 2,000 couples about their couplings, based on 12 years of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey. The A.I. system made 18,613 observations about the couples, and over that period, some 45% — or 914 couples — hit splitsville.
The calculations were complicated, but the machine learning system used its powers to predict all the possible outcomes from the relationships, in this case based on a technique called Random Survival Forests. It boiled down the “most important predictors of union dissolution,” and winnowed it down to the top two reasons couples call it quits: The life satisfaction of both partners, and the female partner’s percentage of housework.
The first one actually echoes the mantra “Happy wife, happy life” — If the man is “feeling good and highly satisfied about his life,” this increased a female partner’s life satisfaction, and boosts their relationship’s chances in the long run, the A.I. concluded. Conversely, if the dude isn’t happy with his life, there’s not much his spouse’s own life satisfaction can do to save the union.
The second big predictor? Pretty-self-explanatory. So pick up a broom and boost your chances, fellas.
The researchers’ findings were published in the journal Demography.