Deciding on your perfect match is not always easy. Especially when you’re online dating you often feel like there’s more than one good match. It’s tempting to keep those options open, for fear of making the wrong decision. A Massachusets Instituts of Technology study has shown that this type of behaviour is not only typical of online dating – it’s also exhibited by people making decisions in an abstract computer game.

Each player had the possibility to earn money by clicking on the right doors. They could click the doors as they wished, but the clicks were limited to 100, so a quick decision paid off. Still, players kept returning to less profitable doors for fear of losing that option.

That sounds very abstract, but the initiator of the study draws the parallel to relationships. It makes sense to decide on a partner once you have found a great match. Instead of keeping your options open, you should then close all other doors. This makes you more satisfied with your choice and helps you move on to new decisions.

So, if you think you might have found your perfect match through online dating, make your decision and close those other doors!

Jewellery is a typical gift in relationships – from cheap charm bracelets to diamond engagement rings, jewellery is traditionally a gift of love. But while you could dump the charm bracelet in a shoebox when your first love dumped you, it’s a lot harder to deal with more valuable gifts. Most people don’t want to wear gems that remind them of a failed relationship. On the other hand, it’s a shame to let them gather dust at the back of jewellery box and flushing them down the toilet doesn’t seem like the best idea once the initial anger has evaporated. Then what to do eith expensive, unloved tokens of love?

You could sell jewellery from a failed relationship on a new website, which specialises in jewellery from ex-lovers. Each piece gives you the article description, the price and the back story of the failed relationship. This gives the sellers the possibility to not only rid themselves of these reminders of love gone wrong, but also to get closure on the failed relationship.

Inseparable couples can be many things – annoying or sweet, codependent or happy. Some envy inseparable couples, others can’t imagine anything worse than spending all day, every day whith their partner. After reading an article about a couple that is literally inseparable, never further than 15 feet apart, two journalists gave it a try: Could they live an entire day as a truly inseparable couple?

The happily married couple spent the whole day together, never straying more than 15 feet from their partner. The experiment revealed a lot about themselves, their partner and them as a couple – in both positive and negative ways. The day is narrated from their alternating perspectives, which makes for a fascinating read.

While the man realises that he has never witnessed his wife’s daily beauty ritual, the woman enjoys a shared breakfast. They both hate sharing the newspaper. By accompanying each other to the office, they get to see each other work, but they have less to talk about in the evening. After all, an inseparable couple has spent the day together, so there’s little to tell. The couple comes to the conclusion that it was an interesting experiment, but they definitely don’t want to spend another day as inseparable couple!

“Meat is Murder” – can anyone who shares the Smiths’ opinion on that subject have a successful relationship with a carnivore? The short, simple answer is OF COURSE! I’m a vegetarian, but I’ve always managed to live with meat lovers and to have relationships with them. Unless there’s raw meat dripping on my tofu in the fridge, I don’t see why differen dietary choices should endanger a relationship. However, there obviously are people who believe that relationships between vegetarians and carnivores can’t work out.

So again it’s the people who jeopardise their chances of finding love by being extremely picky. First it was literature snobs who dumped a partner for reading the wrong books. Now it’s foodies who can’t handle their partner eating differently.

Of course shared meals are an important part of a relationship and most people enjoy cooking and eating with their partner. After all, the way to a foodie’s heart is through their stomach. But surely there’s ways to compromise. Come on, people – cook the meat and the side veg separately! Experiment with vegetarian dishes that you both enjoy! A person that refuses to eat a meal without meat is as stubborn and intolerant as a vegetarian who refuses, on moral grounds, to kiss someone who has eaten meat (both mentioned in the article).

By the way: be2 lets you declare whether you’re vegetarian in your profile. But it’s not a criterion that excludes potential partners

Paul Simon only came up with 50 ways to leave your lover.

A french author has upped the stakes and came up with 100 ways to leave your lover , just in case you can’t think of the right strategy yourself.

Well, if you’re gonna leave your lover, you might as well do it in an original fashion!

Can books prevent relationships? The american blogosphere has been discussing that question, since an article in the New York Times declared the topic of relevance to relationships.

The article observes that some people end a relationship as soon as they discover their suitor has a bad taste in literature.

Obviously taste can be a good indicator of compatibility (that goes for literature, as well as film, music, art…) A shared favourite novel can get a relationship off to a good start, and it’s important for an avid reader to find a suitor who also enjoys reading.

But does that really justify the arrogance of declaring readers of certain books unsuiable for a relationship? (more…)

Did you ever spend hours in front of your stereo trying to create the perfect mixtape for a pretty girl? Remeber how much work that was? But remember how you could win that pretty girl’s heart with a good mixtape and then it was totally worth it after all?

Well, now you can start conquering women’s hearts with mixtapes again, although this time around it’s a lot less work and, of course, digital. An Online-Mixtape is easy to compile and send to a pretty girl.

The advantage (aside from the fact that it can be done without pressing REC, FF, REW and PLAY countless times): You can send it to someone you’ve met online and impress the hell out of her with your superior taste in music.

via Random Good Stuff

When you hear perfect couple, you usually think of double-whammy beauty, like Hollywood dream couple Jolie-Pitt or the lovely Rossdale-Stefanis. Now an American study has found that pretty women and less attractive men make the happiest couples.

According to the study, attractive men are unhappy in relationships with less pretty women and spend their days looking out for prettier women (when they aren’t busy admiring their own reflection, presumably). (more…)

Matchmaking has a lot to do with faith and trust. First of all, you need faith in yourself, you need to feel desirable as a single and you need to believe in happy relationships. There was a time when singles trusted their parents or professional matchmakers to arrange a marriage. Today, singles often trust friends to set them up or search for a relationship through online matchmaking.

But obviously some singles trust no one more than… God. Well, you could say God was the first matchmaker in history, because that relationship between Adam und Eve surely wouldn’t have been possible without his help. The logical next step for faithful catholic singles is obviously to pray for a relationship.

Seeing how God probably has lots of other requests to deal with, they direct their prayers to Saint Anthony, the patron saint of singles. This article was interesting for that snippet of information alone – we never knew singles had their own saint! (more…)

The reasons for fights between couples are as numerous as the reasons for love. Most relationships involve some amount of fighting – and, hopefully, making up. However, most couples believe that love has nothing to do with money and that money doesn’t count in a relationship.

Nevertheless, up to 80% of all fights couples have are about money. Maybe it’s because you don’t think about money when you fall in love. As love turns into a relationship, money matters creep in. (more…)