Mental Health

Relationship Secrets Revealed Through Texts

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Oct 24, 2014 04:23 PM EDT

Texts can reveal a lot about a person's romantic relationships, according to a new study.

Scientist Alice Zhao wanted to understand how intimate relationships evolve over time by analyzing her text conversations with her husband from when they first met in 2008 to present day.

The study revealed that she and her husband sent less flirtatious and loving messages to one another and texted about more everyday things like dinner times and grocery lists, according to The Independent.

Zhao also found that words like "hey" and "love" decreased while "dinner" and "ok" increased, according to a new study.  Furthermore, the times at which Zhao and her husband exchanged messages also shifted from 3pm and 3am to working hours.

Besides highlighting the evolution of logistics, Zhao notes that logistics can also account for the shift in texting behaviors.

 "The main difference is that while we were dating, we didn't see each other every day, so a lot of our communication had to happen via text. We'd often message the other person to see what they were doing or tell them that we were thinking of them," Zhao wrote in her blog. "As a married couple, since we're together all the time, we set up date nights and say sweet things to each other in person, so texting is mostly used to confirm logistics or share random thoughts."

"Overall, our text messages started out very flirty and personal. Since we were new in our relationship, we made sure the things we said were interesting and thoughtful. As our relationship progressed, we spent more time together and got more comfortable with each other. Our text messages became more predictable, but only because all of the unpredictable things were said in person. We no longer have to text 'I love you' from a distance in the middle of the night. I can now roll over, snuggle with my husband and whisper it into his ear," she concluded.

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