Open Access

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

, volume 117 , issue 32 , pages 19061-19071

Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies

Samantha Joel ¹

Paul W. Eastwick ²

Colleen J. Allison ³

X B Arriaga ⁴

Zachary G Baker ⁵

Eran Bar-Kalifa ⁶

Sophie Bergeron ⁷

Gurit E. Birnbaum ⁸

Rebecca L. Brock ⁹

Claudia C. Brumbaugh ¹⁰

Cheryl Carmichael ¹¹

Serena Chen ¹²

Jennifer Clarke ¹³

Rebecca J. Cobb ¹⁴

Michael K. Coolsen ¹⁵

Jody Davis ¹⁶

David C De Jong ¹⁷

Anik Debrot ¹⁸

Eva C Dehaas ³

Jaye L. Derrick ⁵

Jami Eller ¹⁹

Marie Jöelle Estrada ²⁰

Ruddy Faure ²¹

Eli J. Finkel ²²

R. Chris Fraley ²³

Shelly L. Gable ²⁴

Reuma Gadassi Polack ²⁵

Yuthika U. Girme ³

Amie M Gordon ²⁶

Courtney L. Gosnell ²⁷

Matthew D Hammond ²⁸

Peggy A. Hannon ²⁹

Cheryl Harasymchuk ³⁰

Wilhelm Hofmann ³¹

Andrea B. Horn ³²

Emily A. Impett ³³

Jeremy P Jamieson ²⁰

Dacher Keltner ¹¹

James J. Kim ³⁴

Jeffrey L. Kirchner ³⁵

Esther S Kluwer ^{36, 37}

Madoka Kumashiro ³⁸

Grace Larson ³⁹

Gal Lazarus ⁴⁰

Jill M Logan ³

Laura B. Luchies ⁴¹

Geoff MacDonald ³⁴

Laura V. Machia ⁴²

Michael R Maniaci ⁴³

Jessica A. Maxwell ⁴⁴

Moran Mizrahi ⁴⁵

Amy Muise ⁴⁶

Sylvia Niehuis ¹⁴

Brian Ogolsky ⁴⁷

C Rebecca Oldham ¹⁴

Nickola C Overall ⁴⁴

Meinrad Perrez ⁴⁸

Brett J Peters ⁴⁹

Paula R. Pietromonaco ⁵⁰

Sally I Powers ⁵⁰

Thery Prok ²⁴

Rony Pshedetzky Shochat ⁴⁰

Eshkol Rafaeli ^{40, 51}

Erin L. Ramsdell ⁹

Maija Reblin ⁵²

Michael Reicherts ⁴⁸

Alan Reifman ¹⁴

Harry T Reis ²⁰

Galena K. Rhoades ⁵³

William S. Rholes ⁵⁴

Francesca Righetti ²¹

Lindsey M. Rodriguez ⁵⁵

Ronald D. Rogge ²⁰

Natalie O. Rosen ⁵⁶

Darby E. Saxbe ⁵⁷

Haran Sened ⁴⁰

Jeffry A. Simpson ¹⁹

Erica B Slotter ⁵⁸

Scott M. Stanley ⁵³

Shevaun Stocker ⁵⁹

Cathy Surra ⁶⁰

Hagar ter Kuile ³⁶

Allison A. Vaughn ⁶¹

Amanda M. Vicary ⁶²

Mariko L. Visserman ^{34, 46}

Scott Wolf ³⁵

Hide authors affiliations Show authors affiliations: 62 affiliations

Department of Psychology, Western University, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada; |

Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616; |

Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada; |

⁴

Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907; |

⁵

Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204; |

⁶

Department of Psychology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva 8410501, Israel; |

⁷

Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC H3T 1J4, Canada; |

⁸

School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Herzliya 4610101, Israel; |

⁹

Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588; |

¹⁰

Department of Psychology, Queens College & Graduate Center, City University of New York, Flushing, NY 11367;

Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York

Queens College

¹¹

Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College & Graduate Center, City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY 11210;

Brooklyn College

Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York

¹²

Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; |

¹³

Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO 80918; |

¹⁴

Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409; |

¹⁵

Department of Management, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship, Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, PA 17257; |

¹⁶

Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284; |

¹⁷

Department of Psychology, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723; |

¹⁸

Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; |

¹⁹

Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455; |

²⁰

Department of Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627; |

²¹

Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; |

²²

Department of Psychology and the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208; |

²³

Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820; |

²⁴

Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106; |

²⁵

Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520; |

²⁶

Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109; |

²⁷

Department of Psychology, Pace University, Pleasantville, NY 10570; |

²⁸

School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6012, New Zealand; |

²⁹

Department of Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195; |

³⁰

Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada; |

³¹

Department of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany; |

³²

Department of Psychology and the University Research Priority Program "Dynamics of Healthy Aging," University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland; |

³³

Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6, Canada; |

³⁴

Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada; |

³⁵

Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599; |

³⁶

Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands; |

³⁷

Department of Psychology, Radboud University, 6525 HR Nijmegen, The Netherlands; |

³⁸

Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London SE14 6NW, United Kingdom; |

³⁹

Social Cognition Center Cologne, University of Cologne, 50923 Cologne, Germany; |

⁴⁰

Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel; |

⁴¹

Center for Social Research, Calvin University, Grand Rapids, MI 49546; |

⁴²

Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244; |

⁴³

Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431; |

⁴⁴

School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand; |

⁴⁵

Department of Behavioral Sciences and Psychology, Ariel University Center of Samaria, Ariel 44837, Israel; |

⁴⁶

Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada; |

⁴⁷

Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820; |

⁴⁸

Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland; |

⁴⁹

Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701; |

⁵⁰

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003; |

⁵¹

Department of Psychology, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027; |

⁵²

Department of Health Outcomes & Behavior, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, FL 33612; |

⁵³

Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208; |

⁵⁴

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843; |

⁵⁵

Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL 33701; |

⁵⁶

Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada; |

⁵⁷

Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90007; |

⁵⁸

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085; |

⁵⁹

Human Behavior, Justice, and Diversity Department, University of Wisconsin, Superior, WI 54880; |

⁶⁰

Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712; |

⁶¹

Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182; |

⁶²

Department of Psychology, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL 61701 |

Publication type: Journal Article

Publication date: 2020-07-27

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

scimago Q1

wos Q1

SJR: 3.414

CiteScore: 16.5

Impact factor: 9.1

ISSN: 00278424, 10916490

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1917036117

Copy DOI

PubMed ID: 32719123

Multidisciplinary

Abstract

Significance

What predicts how happy people are with their romantic relationships? Relationship science—an interdisciplinary field spanning psychology, sociology, economics, family studies, and communication—has identified hundreds of variables that purportedly shape romantic relationship quality. The current project used machine learning to directly quantify and compare the predictive power of many such variables among 11,196 romantic couples. People’s own judgments about the relationship itself—such as how satisfied and committed they perceived their partners to be, and how appreciative they felt toward their partners—explained approximately 45% of their current satisfaction. The partner’s judgments did not add information, nor did either person’s personalities or traits. Furthermore, none of these variables could predict whose relationship quality would increase versus decrease over time.

Found

1 citation

Malenova Arina

PhD in Psychology, associate professor

43 publications, 177 citations

h-index: 6

Dostoevsky Omsk State University

Research interests

Positive Psychology

Psychology of the environment

Social psychology

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205

Cite this

GOST |

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GOST Copy

Joel S. et al. Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies // Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2020. Vol. 117. No. 32. pp. 19061-19071.

GOST all authors (up to 50) Copy

RIS |

Cite this

RIS Copy

TY - JOUR

DO - 10.1073/pnas.1917036117

UR - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917036117

TI - Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies

T2 - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

AU - Joel, Samantha

AU - Eastwick, Paul W.

AU - Allison, Colleen J.

AU - Arriaga, X B

AU - Baker, Zachary G

AU - Bar-Kalifa, Eran

AU - Bergeron, Sophie

AU - Birnbaum, Gurit E.

AU - Brock, Rebecca L.

AU - Brumbaugh, Claudia C.

AU - Carmichael, Cheryl

AU - Chen, Serena

AU - Clarke, Jennifer

AU - Cobb, Rebecca J.

AU - Coolsen, Michael K.

AU - Davis, Jody

AU - De Jong, David C

AU - Debrot, Anik

AU - Dehaas, Eva C

AU - Derrick, Jaye L.

AU - Eller, Jami

AU - Estrada, Marie Jöelle

AU - Faure, Ruddy

AU - Finkel, Eli J.

AU - Fraley, R. Chris

AU - Gable, Shelly L.

AU - Gadassi Polack, Reuma

AU - Girme, Yuthika U.

AU - Gordon, Amie M

AU - Gosnell, Courtney L.

AU - Hammond, Matthew D

AU - Hannon, Peggy A.

AU - Harasymchuk, Cheryl

AU - Hofmann, Wilhelm

AU - Horn, Andrea B.

AU - Impett, Emily A.

AU - Jamieson, Jeremy P

AU - Keltner, Dacher

AU - Kim, James J.

AU - Kirchner, Jeffrey L.

AU - Kluwer, Esther S

AU - Kumashiro, Madoka

AU - Larson, Grace

AU - Lazarus, Gal

AU - Logan, Jill M

AU - Luchies, Laura B.

AU - MacDonald, Geoff

AU - Machia, Laura V.

AU - Maniaci, Michael R

AU - Maxwell, Jessica A.

AU - Mizrahi, Moran

AU - Muise, Amy

AU - Niehuis, Sylvia

AU - Ogolsky, Brian

AU - Oldham, C Rebecca

AU - Overall, Nickola C

AU - Perrez, Meinrad

AU - Peters, Brett J

AU - Pietromonaco, Paula R.

AU - Powers, Sally I

AU - Prok, Thery

AU - Pshedetzky Shochat, Rony

AU - Rafaeli, Eshkol

AU - Ramsdell, Erin L.

AU - Reblin, Maija

AU - Reicherts, Michael

AU - Reifman, Alan

AU - Reis, Harry T

AU - Rhoades, Galena K.

AU - Rholes, William S.

AU - Righetti, Francesca

AU - Rodriguez, Lindsey M.

AU - Rogge, Ronald D.

AU - Rosen, Natalie O.

AU - Saxbe, Darby E.

AU - Sened, Haran

AU - Simpson, Jeffry A.

AU - Slotter, Erica B

AU - Stanley, Scott M.

AU - Stocker, Shevaun

AU - Surra, Cathy

AU - ter Kuile, Hagar

AU - Vaughn, Allison A.

AU - Vicary, Amanda M.

AU - Visserman, Mariko L.

AU - Wolf, Scott

PY - 2020

DA - 2020/07/27

PB - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

SP - 19061-19071

IS - 32

VL - 117

PMID - 32719123

SN - 0027-8424

SN - 1091-6490

ER -

BibTex |

Cite this

BibTex (up to 50 authors) Copy

@article{2020_Joel,

author = {Samantha Joel and Paul W. Eastwick and Colleen J. Allison and X B Arriaga and Zachary G Baker and Eran Bar-Kalifa and Sophie Bergeron and Gurit E. Birnbaum and Rebecca L. Brock and Claudia C. Brumbaugh and Cheryl Carmichael and Serena Chen and Jennifer Clarke and Rebecca J. Cobb and Michael K. Coolsen and Jody Davis and David C De Jong and Anik Debrot and Eva C Dehaas and Jaye L. Derrick and Jami Eller and Marie Jöelle Estrada and Ruddy Faure and Eli J. Finkel and R. Chris Fraley and Shelly L. Gable and Reuma Gadassi Polack and Yuthika U. Girme and Amie M Gordon and Courtney L. Gosnell and Matthew D Hammond and Peggy A. Hannon and Cheryl Harasymchuk and Wilhelm Hofmann and Andrea B. Horn and Emily A. Impett and Jeremy P Jamieson and Dacher Keltner and James J. Kim and Jeffrey L. Kirchner and Esther S Kluwer and Madoka Kumashiro and Grace Larson and Gal Lazarus and Jill M Logan and Laura B. Luchies and Geoff MacDonald and Laura V. Machia and Michael R Maniaci and Jessica A. Maxwell and others},

title = {Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies},

journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},

year = {2020},

volume = {117},

publisher = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)},

month = {jul},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917036117},

number = {32},

pages = {19061--19071},

doi = {10.1073/pnas.1917036117}

}

MLA

Cite this

MLA Copy

Joel, Samantha, et al. “Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 117, no. 32, Jul. 2020, pp. 19061-19071. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917036117.

Publisher

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

scimago Q1

wos Q1

SJR

3.414

CiteScore

16.5

Impact factor

9.1

ISSN

00278424 (Print)

10916490 (Electronic)