When it comes to predicting whether or not a heterosexual romantic relationship is going to last, the female partner's friends seem to be particularly astute, according to new study findings.

    最近一項科學研究發現，在男女雙方戀愛中，女方的閨中好友能夠更準確地預言這對戀人未來感情的發展。

    The couple's joint friends are often good at predicting the success of the relationship as well, researchers report.

    研究員稱，戀人雙方共同的朋友通常也同樣能夠較準確的預言這對戀人的戀情是否能夠成功。

    "People often turn to their friends for social support; however, we don't always believe that relationship 'outsiders' can offer truly useful insight regarding our own relationship," lead study author Dr. Christopher R. Agnew of Purdue University in Indiana said.

    該項研究的主要發起人，印第安那州普度大學的克里斯托弗·阿格紐博士說：“雖然人們在社交活動中經常向朋友尋求幫助，但通常我們并不認為旁觀者能夠真正了解自己的戀情。”

    To investigate, Agnew's team performed a study of 74 male-female couples and their network of friends, including both their joint friends and their individual friends. All of the participants, including the couple members, were asked to give their perceptions about the couple's relationship, rating factors such as the male's and female's commitment to each other and their closeness.

    為此，阿格紐博士的研究小組組織了74對男女戀人和他們的朋友進行調查研究，這些朋友包括男女雙方共同的朋友和他們各自的朋友。所有參加調查的人，包括戀人們自己，都預言了戀愛的結果，其中包括男女雙方對彼此感情的投入以及他們的親密程度等。

    Study results show that the perceptions of the couples' joint friends and those of the female's friends were more successful in predicting the relationship's fate through the next 6 months than the perceptions of the male's friends.

    試驗后的6個月中，戀人們感情發展的實際情況表明，當初雙方共同的朋友以及女方朋友的預言比男方朋友的預言要準確。

    Furthermore, the perceptions of the female's friends remained significant predictors of the couple's fate even when the couple members' own perceptions were taken into consideration.

    不僅如此，女方朋友的的預言甚至比戀人們自己的預言還要準確。

    What's more, the female's friends' perceptions of the couple's commitment and closeness also significantly predicted whether or not the pair would break up.

    此外，女方的朋友除了能夠準確預言戀人雙方對彼此的感情投入程度和親密程度之外，還能夠準確預言這對戀人最終是否會走向分手。

    The reason for this may be that couple members have a "tremendous personal stake in the romance that clouds (their) judgments regarding it," the researchers suggest.

    研究者認為，戀人們本身之所以不能準確地預測自己戀情的發展，正是應了“只在此山中，云深不知處”這句話。

    The female's friends, in contrast, are "less biased" and are therefore able to make more successful predictions, the authors explain. In addition, women, in comparison to men, are known to share more realistic and more intimate information about their relationships with their friends. Thus, her friends may have more access than his friends to the relevant information on which their relationship predictions are based, Agnew and colleagues point out.

    相形之下，女方的朋友可以更準確地看待他們的戀情，所以能夠更成功地預知他們戀情的發展。另外，和男性相比，女性朋友之間的交流更加實際、更加親密。因此，阿格紐博士和他的同事指出，戀人雙方中女方的朋友會比男方的朋友更加了解他們的戀情，因而能夠在此基礎上做出更準確的預言。

    In other findings, couples with a higher number of joint friends were more committed, satisfied and invested in the relationship, and were more likely to have remained together by the 6-month follow-up.

    研究還表明，擁有共同朋友較多的戀人們對自己的戀情更加忠誠、滿意和投入。在預測試驗結束后的6個月中，他們的戀情會相對更趨于穩定。

    For those with a significant number of individual friends, however, "don't be too quick to discount the relationship assessments of your friends," study co-author Dr. Stephen M. Drigotas in Texas said. "They might have an accurate glimpse into what sort of relationship you have with your partner."

    該項研究的另一位作者，來自德克薩斯州的史迪芬·德里戈特斯博士說：“對于各自擁有不少朋友的戀人們來說，可不要小看朋友對自己戀情的看法，因為朋友很可能對你的戀情有著更準確的看法。”