Broke Up Recently? Museum Wants the Remnants

He's probably gay, she probably hates you, and it could ruin your relationship

(NEWSER) - Back in the halcyon pre-Facebook days, Elizabeth Bernstein writes, you didn't just pick up the phone and ring up an old flame. “If you went looking for a former partner, you knew you were looking for trouble.” So why it should be any different on Facebook? A survey of botched reconnections suggests it shouldn’t. "We need new rules now.” More»

(NEWSER) - Tired of texting your long-distance lover to say how much you care? A Scottish research lab hopes to connect couples with something a bit more poetic: "painted" light. Users of Mutsugoto wear touch-activated rings tracked by motion-sensing cameras mounted above their beds; caress your own arm and a matching beam of light sweeps across your partner's arm. Couples who break up can turn to the lab's other project—a remote fighting game, reports the BBC. More»

Early passion causes disappointment later, say researchers

(NEWSER) - If you’re stuck in a romantic rut, blame it on puppy love. Sociologists say the torrid affairs of youth lead to unrealistic expectations about relationships later in life, the Guardian reports. "Remarkably, it seems that the secret to long-term happiness in a relationship is to skip a first relationship," one sociologist, who edited a new book on love, says. More»

We get over break-ups faster than we think, researchers say

(NEWSER) - Break-ups don’t break us up as much as we expect, a study finds. Researchers at Northwestern University followed 70 romantically-entwined freshmen over 9 months, regularly asking them to update a survey analyzing their current feelings and how they imagined a break-up would feel. The pain of eventual splits was milder than they had foreseen, and they beat the blues twice as soon as predicted, LiveScience reports. More»

At least, not compared to just living with your partner

(NEWSER) - If you're living with your significant other, don't worry too much about tying the knot, because it won't make you any happier, according to a new study. The study followed 2,737 single men and women for six years, watching as 896 of them either got married or moved in with a lover, Science Daily reports. The results? Both married couples and cohabitators exhibited higher levels of happiness and fewer depression symptoms than single people—but married couples didn't have an advantage over those just cohabitating. More»