Predicting divorce

"They'll never make it."

You utter the sentence confidently...and then watch the couple get married, have kids, and celebrate relationship bliss.

Unlike Oscar wins and "American Idol" results, I think I'm pretty good at predicting a romance's life span.

But occasionally, there's that wild card -- the couple who strangely manages to survive and thrive, despite initially having all the odds stacked against them.

Here's an interesting article from Slate about a marriage researcher's attempt to predict divorce based on how a newlywed couple fights. The prediction seems nearly impossible, but some people still say it can be done.

Weigh in: How do your natural instincts fare in predicting a couple's success?

(With her wedding on the horizon, my colleague Katie Holland has already vowed she'll never get divorced. Read more here.)