The facts behind the CQ Test The CQ (Compatibility Quotient) Test is absolutely central to the way in which Cybersuitors matches people. But how does it work? And why can we trust it to be an accurate predictor of a couple's compatibility? The test was developed by Dr Glenn Wilson PhD, an eminent psychologist and one of the world's leading experts in the science of love and attraction. It is based on 25 factors which are recognised by psychologists to be the main causes of discontent and breakdown in relationships. When two people are matched using the test they have already completed a questionnaire of 25 questions, each with five possible answers. Quite simply, the closer their answers the more compatible they are. During the development of Cybersuitors, we worked closely with Dr Wilson to conduct a rigorous scientific evaluation of the CQ Test. It proved conclusively that there is a strong correlation between CQ scores and couples' happiness ­ and also threw up some fascinating differences between the sexes. The research involved asking 125 married couples to participate by individually and confidentially taking the CQ Test, then getting them to complete a second questionnaire which generated a measure of their happiness in their marriage. We made a donation to the UK marriage guidance organisation Relate for each completed questionnaire - and the findings of the research have also been shared with Relate, as well as being submitted for publication in a prominent scientific journal. The cliché that opposites attract is often held to be true when it comes to loving relationships. While most people could point to examples where this does seem to apply among people they know, the weight of the evidence produced by researching the CQ Test does not support the idea that relationships based on difference are the most successful. In fact the equally well-known proverb 'birds of a feather flock together' seems to be a more reliable guide to relationship success. Psychologists call the birds of a feather and opposites attract approaches the 'similarity' and 'complementation' theories of attraction respectively. Our findings show in particular that sharing similar views on five different subjects is critical to the marital happiness of both genders ­ but there are a further four which are important to only women or men. The five which apply equally to both require them to have similar views on sexual fidelity; their preferred type of relationship; their liking (or not) for parties; their taste for foreign food; and the level of their own libido. For example a relationship would have most chance of success if both partners either love parties, or both dislike them. If one is a party animal but the other is a party pooper, things are less likely to work out. But men and women differ in certain key respects measured by the test. In the case of women they are much more likely to be happy with their relationship if they are with a partner who has similar views to their own on politics and on smoking. Neither of these matters appears to be of particular significance to men. Men on the other hand are more likely to be content when they are with a woman who has a similar opinion to their own about their physical attractiveness and a similar view of the extent of their sexual experience. In simple terms, a twenty-a-day left-wing female is unlikely to be very happy with a non-smoking Republican/Conservative male, even though he might well be happy with her. In much the same way, a man who considers himself attractive and sexually experienced probably wouldn't be terribly happy with a woman who regards herself as plain and rather green when it comes to matters of the bedroom. As well as examining the 125 married couples in depth we also calculated CQ scores for 10,000 other couples, giving us more than enough data to be highly confident about both the test itself and the scale used to measure predicted compatibility: 120+   Highly compatible 110 - 119 Very compatible 105 - 109 Fairly compatible 100 - 104 Averagely compatible 85 - 99 Less than averagely compatible 70 - 84 Possibly incompatible Less than 70 Probably incompatible The CQ Test has been used by BBC Television in a 'Tomorrow's World' programme looking at the part played by science in predicting the outcome of relationships. Whilst 'chemistry' clearly has a vital role in whether two people get together in the first place, it's clear that the CQ Test provides a unique means of forecasting whether they will still be happy once the early passion has cooled.