This Algorithm Tests The Strength Of Your Relationship

Mathematician and OKCupid founder Christian Rudder and his team have written an online application that analyzes your Facebook network to predict the strength of your relationships.

In his new book "Dataclysm: Who We Are When We Think No One's Looking," Rudder writes about a tool that visualizes your social network and evaluates relationships using a special algorithm created by Rudder's team.

"The graph assigns weight to relationships, so 'cliques' of friends will cluster together. You can mouse over to see people's names," the app states.

In his book, Rudder writes that a relationship involves the merger of two lives, and that by analyzing the "embeddedness" of the couple's social networks you can measure the depth of their integration and the strength of their relationship.

"Research from a variety of sources (e-mails, IM, telephone) has shown that the more mutual friends two people share, the stronger their relationship. More connections imply more time together, more common interest, and more stability," Rudder writes.

However, the algorithm Rudder and his team developed measures more than just the number of common connections; it measures the number of clusters of friends you have in common.

According to the team, the more seperate friend-groups a couple has in common - from work to high school to family and college friends - the more embedded the relationship is.

Data networks which show clusters of connected friend groups, like Facebook, are vital to performing this type of analysis.

"For relationships, and romantic relationships specifically, this data has enabled a new, powerful measure of how strong a bond between two people is. It turns out your lives should not just be intertwined, but intertwined in a specific way," Rudder writes.

You can see your own friend clusters and the measure of your relationship online here.