Researchers have found that, at least at first, the difference between a long-term and a short-term relationship is hard to tell and there is an obvious culprit. In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: The team from General, University of California, Davis, surveyed more than 800 people of different ages. They use the “Relationship Reconstruction” survey to call participants from the beginning to reproduce moments of a previous relationship.
What they found was that romantic interest in both long-term and short-term relationships grew at the same rate. This means that in the beginning, participants had the same experience regardless of how long the relationship lasted. So they all enjoyed a good time at first sight, so to speak. “Short” was used to refer to an experience like a shaking or one-night stand, where “long” was a long-term committed relationship. But there came a point where it has become a plateau in the case of short-term relationships and has declined, while romantic interest in long-term relationships continues to grow.
This suggests that despite having initial feelings, you don’t know exactly where the relationship is going. Dr. Paul Eastwick from the University of California, Davis, lead author of the study, told IFLScience, “These initial effects do not strongly predict how long the relationship will last.”“Romantic compatibility is very difficult to evaluate after a while, Generally speaking.”
The group noted that some of the most exciting moments in a relationship happened before a sexual event, with people wondering if the relationship would go somewhere or if they were really with another person. At a certain point, however, they begin to break down somewhat, and as others continue, they begin to disintegrate.
So what is the reason for separation? Well, the suspect seems to be the old classic: sex. According to the survey, if people tend to lean and think its pretty good, they try to turn that experience into a relationship. The ones that were “meh” didn’t last very long.
If people are attracted to another person “somewhat” they will have an intimate relationship, but not for long. Long-term relationships, on the other hand, tend to be “particularly exciting and sexy.” Their words, not mine. Dr. Eastwick said, “In many cases, the first sexual experience is an indicator of whether the relationship wants to move forward or allow the issue to come out and be satisfied with what becomes a very casual thing.”
