Love Quiz: Is It Time To Leave Your Relationship?

The idea that the love in your relationship has expired is a difficult thought for one to stomach. When love turns into hate and fondness into bitterness, and when negative sentiment override seems to be dominating your interactions, it’s likely a good time to question whether or not it’s worth staying in a relationship that simply may not be making you (or your partner) happy.

In these instances, the best thing partners can do is to walk away. When asked what advice Dr. John Gottman would give his younger self, he replied, “Get out of bad relationships sooner.”

Sometimes relationships get so turned around that you can’t tell if it’s time to leave or not. But your breakthrough research with thousands of couples discovered six telltale signs that can predict with over 94% accuracy whether a couple will break up within the next four years:

Sign #1: The Story of Us

The easiest way to tell if a relationship has passed its expiration date is to listen to the Story of Us couples share about their relationship’s history, philosophy, struggles, and achievements. If their memories are mostly positive, even with a fair dose of negativity regarding regrettable incidents, then there’s hope. But if negativity takes over—if it becomes difficult, even impossible, to remember the good times and couples focus only on the bad—then that’s what we call the “Story of Us Switch.”

Think of this as a light switch. When it is turned on, love fills the relationship with positive stories, keeping irritability and emotional distance in the closet, even if there are some difficulties. But when the light is turned off, negativity takes over and the Four Horsemen likely charge in constantly. This is when partners begin to assume the worst about each other.

We call this a switch because we rarely saw a range of memories in our research. Couples seemed to either have joyful memories (even with a mix of negativity), or entirely bitter ones.

Whether the light is turned on or off is determined by the cumulative trust or betrayal each partner remembers.

The future success of your relationship is determined by the way in which you tell your Story of Us. If your relationship has all five telltale signs below, it may be time to break up.  How you answer the questions in this relationship couples quiz, adapted from the book “What Makes Love Last?” will give you a sense of whether to stay in your relationship or consider moving on.