Breakups are not fun, as anyone who has experienced them knows. Craig Eric Morris wanted to figure out why.

Over 120 students filled Academic Building A on Monday night to hear the doctoral candidate in anthropology talk about how people react to breakups and the sources of these responses.

Morris surveyed 5,705 individuals from 96 countries. Half of the participants were from the U.S., 10 percent were from the U.K. and the others were scattered internationally. He sent out his survey to chairs of 400 different anthropology departments around the world, in addition to using social media forums such as Facebook and Reddit.

The study surveyed men and women 18 years and older, with most of the respondents between the ages of 20 and 40. Only 38 percent of those who responded were undergraduate or graduate students. The survey included questions about how many breakups participants have had, how long relationships typically lasted and whether age influenced the effect they had on people.

He found that thousands of respondents never had a breakup and about a dozen had only one. The average number of breakups for both men and women was 3.5 by age 30, and 25 percent of all relationships lasted a year or less.

Morris’ research found that 85 percent of individuals will have at least one breakup in their lifetime that affects them seriously. People can experience physical effects, such as weight gain, and emotional effects, such as anxiety.

He explained that since women have a limited amount of reproductive material, they behave in a certain way that is more selective and protective when choosing a mate. Men have unlimited reproductive material and theoretically an unlimited reproductive lifespan, so they may be less choosy.

“Reproduction, romance, love,” Morris said. “All these things are generated by our biological need to ‘get it on’ and make copies of ourselves.”

Part of Morris’ studies focused on Post Relationship Grief (PRG), which is a complex web of emotional and physical responses associated with the termination of a romantic relationship, colloquially known as heartbreak.

“One thing I found amazing is whether your breakup happened a week ago or 40 years ago, you report your reactions exactly the same,” he said.

Physical after-effects, like weight loss or gain, are higher in women. Lack of communication accounts for 50 percent of breakups, and many respondents did not believe it was due to distance or actions of others.

He also detailed the “silver lining for women,” which refers to the post-breakup reflection where many report learning about themselves and their relationship preferences. Thirty percent of women confirmed this to be true.

“Most women, most of the time, become introspective, go through a lot of physical and emotional pain … and move on,” Morris said. “Most men report anger, violence, profanity, alcoholism lasting eight to nine months and other dangerous behavior.”

Joseline Cruz, a senior majoring in biology, said women are perceived as being “broken” after breakups, but that is not always actually the case.

“This talk looked at breakups as a positive thing, meaning women come out stronger,” Cruz said. “Obviously you don’t tend to think of it that way so it’s a pretty novel idea.”

Morris said his main message was that honesty is the way to make a relationship work.

“Be honest about what you want, what you don’t want, what they’re doing that’s bothering you,” Morris said. “All those things, infidelity, this, that, it’s lack of communication.”