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Life

09th Feb 2019

Apparently, couples who use this word are in ‘happier’ relationships

Melissa Carton

There’s no ‘I’ in ‘we’ but apparently there’s a good chance it means you’re really in love.

Apparently couples who use the pronouns ‘us’ and ‘we’ are happier in their relationships than couples who don’t.

This information comes after some extensive research from a team in the University of California investigated the effects pronoun usage has on relationships.

The Californian based team analysed over 5,000 participants and found that there was a correlation between first-person plural pronouns, such as ‘we’, and the overall happiness and health of a relationship.

A graduate of the lab where the study took place said;

“The benefit of analysing many different couples in a lot of different contexts is that it establishes we-talk isn’t just positively related in one context, but that it indicates positive functioning overall.”

The study, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, focused in on interdependence and how ‘we-talk’ can affect it.

It’s still unclear whether or not pronouns like ‘us’ indicate happiness between a couple because they fell into the habit of using it so easily or because hearing each other say it made them more comfortable in their relationship.

Regardless it seems the usage itself is enough to point to a happy and healthy relationship.

What do you think? Do you use ‘us’ and ‘we’ all the time with your partner?