Marriage and Coding

I just began listening to Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink on CD in my car, and heard an interesting example of a coding analysis used for married couples and whether their relationships would last or a divorce was in their future. In the study, couples are asked to discuss a topic within their relationships for 15 minutes. A code of 20 different emotions, such as defensive, contempt, and criticism, are given to both the husband and wife for each second of the conversation. The man who created this analysis has a 90% accuracy of predicting whether a marriage will last or not. While it is an extremely tedious and meticulous example of such an analysis, I thought it was a good example of what is possible through coding.