RQ (Relationship Quotient) is a simplified view of how successful a certain relationship is deemed to be.

As with IQ (Intelligence Quotient), a single-dimensional value can never relate all the strengths and weaknesses of a relationship. However, if you take Brad Pitt’s relationship with Jennifer Aniston and compare its Love RQ of 77 to the RQ of 130 in his relationship with Angelina Jolie, it is easy to determine which long-term love relationship has the greater potential.

Take – for example – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s relationship with Heather Hunter. Given a Love RQ of 67, a Friendship RQ of 40 and a Sex RQ of 110 – it is easy to see what kind of expectations the two should have developed about the nature of their relationship.


How is RQ calculated?

While the concept of calculating RQ is always the same, each type of relationship has its own RQ formula because different types of relationships require a different blend of the basic four qualities of relationships: commitment, intimacy, passion, and synergy.

Long-term love relationships, for example, require mutual commitment, mutual intimacy, and mutual passion in order to maximize their success potential.

When all three components are present in a relationship, its Love RQ equals 100, i.e. each component contributes one third of 100. To make matters a little bit more complex, we penalize the RQ score if only one side to the relationship contributes to the mutual quality, and we reword the RQ if the strength of a mutual quality is higher than 1 (one).

Love RQ of 87 for the relationship between Princess Diana and Prince Charles is calculated as follows:
1. Add 33.33 (1/3) for mutual commitment.
2. Add nothing for mutual intimacy.
3. Add 33.33 (1/3) for mutual passion.
4. Add 20 points for mutual passion = 3 (10 points for each increment).
Total = 33.33 + 33.33 + 20 = 87.

No penalty was given because both mutual commitment and mutual passion are contributed by Prince Charles and Princess Diana alike.

Let's take another example - the partnership between Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first Everest climbers who made it to the top in the early 1950s.

We wouldn't accept anything less than 100 Partners RQ on their relationship report, or else they couldn't have made it to the top.

The section "Types of relationships and the ingredients they require" of the report tells us that a successful partnership requires mutual commitment (50% of the score) and synergy (50%).

Hence, the calculation goes as follow:
1. Add 50.00 (1/2) for mutual commitment.
3. Add 50.00 (1/2) for synergy.
Total = 50.00 + 50.00 = 100.


Our RQ is greater than 100. What does it mean?

Usually, an RQ greater than 100 implies that all the necessary qualities are strong in a relationship, but some are even stronger.

Stronger commitment has more sustaining power during prolonged troubled times, when there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Stronger passion means that a couple will be even more likely to seek each other’s physical companionship in older age and through times of physical neglect, etc.


What is the average RQ?

Type of relationship	Average RQ *1	Highest Community RQ *2	Highest Possible RQ *3
Love relationship	55	180	220
Friendship	51	160	180
Romantic relationship	58	160	180
Sexual affair	69	180	180
Partnership	45	180	180
Teammates	46	140	140

(1) To produce this statistics, we sampled 1,083,790 reports. Remember that we have no way of knowing the purpose for which each report was produced (love, business, etc.), so we included all these reports in each calculation.

(2) Highest Community RQ is the highest score that we found in the sampled database for each type of relationship.

(3) Highest Possible RQ is the theoretical maximum value possible for a specific type of relationship. For example, it a couple enjoys mutual commitment of 5, mutual intimacy of 5, and mutual passion of 5 - their Love RQ would be 220.

Post your questions and comments below.