drmstream[writing]

Over at Pre­dictably Irra­tional, Dan Ariely uses Google’s search prompt to explore the dif­fer­ence between the ques­tions men are ask­ing about their girl­friends and women are ask­ing about their boyfriends.

Look­ing at the top ques­tions, we can intuit some basic rela­tion­ship rules that will give peo­ple imme­di­ate satisfaction.

1. If you want to get a blowjob, pro­pose to your girlfriend.
2. If you want to get your boyfriend to spend more time with you, sleep with him.
3. If you want to have your boyfriend love you again, lose some weight.
4. If you want to get your girl­friend to trust you, you should try trust­ing her.
5. If you want to get your girl­friend to love you again, try being more romantic.
6. If you want to get your boyfriend to stop smok­ing, start shaving.
7. If you try­ing to fig­ure out how to get your boyfriend to be more affec­tion­ate, for­get it: He wants to break up.
8. If you’re try­ing to fig­ure out how to get your girl­friend to for­give you, for­get it: She wants to break up.
9. If you want to get your boyfriend to last longer in bed, try kiss­ing more.
10. If you want to get your girl­friend to love you, stop drinking.

There you have it: 10 top rela­tion­ship truths, cour­tesy of Google Search.

While there are stark dif­fer­ences between the two lists, there’s a poignant com­mon­al­ity in two of the top five ques­tions: How do I get my part­ner to trust me and love me again. Peo­ple are yearn­ing for kind­ness and for­give­ness, but are left feel­ing hope­less and uncer­tain in their rela­tion­ships. Sad.