BBC Words in the News 13/22 with transcript video

Government proposals to formalise rights for same-sex couples prompted the petition. Around three-quarters of a million people signed it – out of a total population of just over 4 million. The Catholic Church is a key part of Croat identity – and many people are socially conservative.

The referendum is an enormous embarrassment for Croatia’s government. It tried – and failed – to block the vote through the courts.

Success is a relative concept. Croatia appeared to be moving in a different direction to other western Balkan countries when it joined the EU in July. Now, like its neighbours, Serbia and Montenegro, it has a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The researchers interviewed more than 100 newly-weds, all of whom said they were very happy with their partner – as one might imagine.

However, a test of their unconscious feelings towards each other showed that some of them had negative emotions which they haven’t admitted to – even to themselves.

The test involved showing one of the couple a photograph of their partner for a third of a second. They then had to answer as quickly as possible whether certain words such as great, awesome, horrible and scary were positive or negative words.

If they had unconscious negative feelings towards their partner, they were quick to identify the negative words, and vice versa.

Researchers found that those with unconscious negative feelings had them gradually surface and they admitted to being unhappy in follow-up interviews three or four years later.