For Memorial Day Weekend 2006, How Many Hearts Will Be Broken? A New Study Predicts 11,404 - And That Doesn't Even Include Teenagers!

While other Memorial Day Weekend statisticians focus on highway traffic flow and lines at the airport, relationship expert Julia Sokol focuses on the statistics of love. A ‘small spike' in heartbreak is predicted for this weekend.

New York (PRWEB) May 25, 2006 -- Year after year, Memorial Day media reports nationwide have focused on how long the lines are at the airport, how high gasoline prices have soared, and how many Americans have taken to the highway.

This year, you can add a new statistic to that Memorial Day coverage: the number of broken hearts.

According to research conducted by relationship experts Julia Sokol and Steven Carter, authors of the New York Times best-selling "Men Who Can't Love," 11,404 hearts will be broken in the U.S. over the coming three-day weekend.

"And that doesn't even include teenagers," says Ms. Sokol, whose latest book, "Help! I'm In Love With A Narcissist!," chronicles the tactics of one category of major heartbreakers – toxic narcissists. http://301url.com/2nc

Sokol's study was conducted using the results of a random telephone survey of 1,025 Americans conducted by Opinion Research Corp. of Princeton, New Jersey. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3%. (The figures were created based on an estimated current adult population in the U.S. of 219.75 million people with an average lifespan of 77.6 years)

In an era when almost 1.4 million American hearts are broken every year, Sokol predicts we will see a "small spike" in broken hearts over the weekend – as we do over all major holidays.

"From the many people we've interviewed about their relationships since we started writing books on relationships, I feel very comfortable in saying that hearts tend to be broken around holidays," says Sokol "Like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year's Eve, Memorial Day is a biggie in the break-up department."

Why? "Memorial Day represents the beginning of summer,‘ explains Sokol, who with co-author Carter added the word ‘commitmentphobia' to the American dating vocabulary in their ground-breaking 1986 tome. "To many people, this creates questions about the relationship. People who are feeling ambivalent about their relationships and people who are beginning to have cold feet and experience commitment fears start asking questions: Are we going to be together for the summer? Are we going to take a vacation together. If we start out the summer together, does that automatically mean that my partner expects that will still be together on Labor Day? For many people, it's just easier to break off a relationship than answer all of these types of questions."

With that kind of reasoning, many people decide to send a signal to their partners on Memorial Day that they can't take anything for granted, says Sokol. "They may not actually break-up, but they may make plans for the weekend or day that don't include their romantic partner. The partner then logically asks, what's going on here?"

Says Carter: "Lots of people want to be unencumbered for summertime, free to travel, party, and meet new hearts they can break. If summertime means spending your time with his-or-her friends, his-or-her family, and making all your plans to accommodate his-or-her likes, dislikes, interests, disinterests, rules and regulations, then summertime can be a dreadful time. Like the birds and bees of summer, people want to be free to pollinate where they please."

According to their study, 49% of Americans have suffered from a broken heart at least once in their lives. Residents of the South are the most likely to suffer from a broken heart, with 51% saying they had suffered a heartbreak. Least heartbroken – the Midwest, where only 47% of the country has experienced a broken heart.

By race, blacks are by far the most broken hearted, with 67% reporting they had their heart broken at least once, compared to just 46% of whites. 60% of Hispanic Americans say they have suffered from a broken heart.

Sokol's five tips to avoid to avoid a Memorial Day break-up:

1. Never argue on a Long Car Trip: "Trapped in a car, it's impossible to take a ‘time-out' from an argument, which allows arguments to really escalate," says Sokol. "So just don't."

2. Ignore Commitment Questions from Relatives: "If nosy Aunt Rose starts asking about engagement plans at the family barbecue, just change the subject – preferably to a discussion of her daughter's recent divorce," suggests Carter.

3. Don't Overpack: "According to a recent study, it's one of the biggest causes of tension between men and women who are traveling," says Sokol.

4. Don't Cling: "Everyone needs their space – so make sure you give your partner some 'me' time instead of overwhelming him or her with you," notes Carter.

5. Watch out for Toxic Narcissists: Warns Sokol: "There's a group of people called ‘toxic narcissists' who are a leading cause of heartbreak, no matter what the time of year. These are the people who are always ‘me, me me' --nothing that you want to do is ever convenient, it's always what they want. In our current McMansion society, where every whim is satisfied instantly, these people are a growing category in the increasingly polluted dating pool. It's best to identify these people at once and avoid them --they're basically undatable."

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