Couple who think they are a perfect match are more likely to split up, it was claimed yesterday. So-called ‘soulmates’ find rows harder to get over than those who see relationships as a journey on which they talk through their problems.

昨日一項新的研究稱那些認為自己與對方完美契合的情侶們其實更容易分手。這些所謂的'靈魂伴侶'更難攜手共度困難，而那些認為情侶關系就是一場解決問題的旅程的人則在這方面表現得更好。

Professor Spike Lee, of Toronto University, and Professor Norbert Schwarz, of the University of Southern California, asked long-term couples questions relating to ‘unity’ or ‘journey’, and got them to recall conflicts and evaluate their relationship. Those with a ‘unity state of mind’ found recalling conflicts made them feel less happy with their relationship.

多倫多大學的教授 Spike Lee 和南加州大學的教授Norbert Schwarz 詢問了一些長期伴侶他們是‘契合派’還是‘旅程派’，并且讓他們回想以前的沖突并評估兩人之間的關系。‘契合派’們發現當他們回想起過去的沖突的時候會對他們的伴侶感到更加的不悅。

Professor Lee said: 'Our findings corroborate prior research showing people who implicitly think of relationships as perfect unity between soulmates have worse relationships than people who implicitly think of relationships as a journey of growing and working things out. 'Apparently, different ways of talking and thinking about love relationship lead to different ways of evaluating it.'

Lee 教授說道：“我們的試驗證實了之前研究的正確性，即比起那些認為自己和伴侶在一起是不斷成長并解決問題的人來說，認為自己和對方是完美契合的靈魂伴侶的人有著更差的情侶關系。很明顯，對于情侶關系的不同討論和想法會導致人們對于這段關系有著不同的評估方法。”

It was the Greek philosopher Aristotle who said 'love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.' But the study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology said this outlook can be damaging. People speak and ponder about love in apparently limitless ways but underlying such diversity are some common themes. For example, some use words like ‘made for each other,’ and ‘she is my other half’, seen by scientists as ‘the perfect unity’ frame. But others prefer ‘the journey’ idea, using expressions such as ‘look how far we have come,’ and ‘we have been through all these things together’.

希臘哲學家亞里士多德曾說過：“愛情是兩個不同的身體里住著同一個靈魂。”這項發表在 《實驗社會心理學》雜志上的試驗則表明這種觀點其實對于情侶是有害的。人們討論和考慮愛情的方式多種多樣但卻又有一些共同的主題，例如，那些說“天造地設”或者“她就是我的另一半”的人便是科學家眼中的‘契合派’。但‘旅程派’的人更愿意用類似于“看看我們已經在一起多久了”以及“我們一起度過了這些難關”的話語來表達。

As predicted, recalling conflicts leads people to feel less satisfied with their relationship, but only with the unity frame in mind, not the journey. Recalling celebrations makes people satisfied with their relationship regardless of how they think about it.

正如我們想的那樣，回想起過去的沖突會讓人們對于自己的這段關系變得不滿意，但這僅限于‘契合派’的人，并非‘旅程派’的人。而兩派的人在回想起值得慶祝的事情的時候則都會對他們的情侶關系感到滿意。

In a two follow up experiments, the researchers invoked the unity against journey frame in even subtler, more incidental ways. For example, people were asked to identify pairs of geometric shapes to form a full circle, activating unity, or draw a line that gets from point A to B through a maze, activating journey.

在兩個跟進試驗中，研究人員發現契合派與旅程派有著更微妙，更偶然的差異。例如，識別一些幾何圖形來組成一個圓圈是‘契合派’的強項，而從迷宮中劃出一條從A到B的路線則是‘旅程派’的強項。

Such non linguistic, merely pictorial cues were sufficient to change the way people evaluated relationships. Again, conflicts hurt relationship satisfaction just with the unity frame in mind. They added: 'It is a journey. You will feel better now, and you will do better down the road.'

這種非言語的，僅僅是一些圖形線索就足以改變人們對于關系的看法。還有，矛盾會導致‘契合派’的人對自己的關系感到不滿。研究人員補充到：“伴侶關系就是一場旅程，你現在就會覺得很好，而且你以后也會做得更好。”