Facebook’s smug couples more likely to stay together

By Daily Telegraph Reporter FOR many Facebook users, couples who document their romance through endless photographs and updates can be a constant annoyance.

However, for the couples concerned, it could be the key to happiness, if a study is to be believed.

Research found that those who wax lyrical about their perfect partner on Facebook were more likely to stay together than those who preferred to keep their love life private. Research- ers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US undertook a study of “public commitment theory” by looking at 180 couples who each had Facebook profiles.

The couples were first asked questions about their age, sex, length of relationship and the seriousness of the relationship. The researchers then recorded the number of Facebook photographs they had posted with their partners and whether they recorded themselves as being “in a relationship” on the website. The team also logged how many times each person wrote on their partner’s Facebook wall in one month, and the number of mutual friends they shared.

After six months, the researchers checked on the couples – all university students – to find out if they were still in the relationship.

The study, entitled

published in the journal and found that those who had posted a lot of photographs and boasted of their relationship status were more likely to remain committed to one another.

“These publicly posted cues likely induced participants to perceive themselves as part of a romantic unit, thus cementing the relationship,” said Catalina Toma and Mina Choi, co-authors of the study.

“While originally intended to connect people with their friend networks, Facebook has become an important space for the negotiation of romantic relationships. Indeed, the present research suggests that Facebook use may have an impact on the very existence of dating relationships.”

The researchers rejected the theory that Facebook activity reflected a couple’s commitment rather than deepened it.

Instead, they suggested that publicly confirming a romance through photographs and status updates helped to maintain a relationship “partly because people want to live in a way that’s consistent with how they represent themselves to the outside world”.

However, having a large number of mutual friends was found to have a negative impact on the longevity of a relationship. The study said this could be because it offered couples “many alternative romantic partners”.

The report said: “Relationship theorists have long noted that the success of romantic relationships depends in large part on couples’ social environments.

“For instance, the longevity of romantic relationships is affected by the extent to which friends and family are aware of and approve of them.”