AutoRelationPun · Understanding the Role of Automatic Partner Attitudes in Relationship Functioning

Understanding the Role of Automatic Partner Attitudes in Relationship Functioning

Romantic relationships are essential for promoting health and reducing mortality risks. However, remaining satisfied with a long-term romantic partner is notoriously difficult, as illustrated by the fact that divorce rates hover around 30-50% in most industrialised societies. Although research shows that how partners respond to one another defines well-functioning relationships, the origins of such crucial behaviour remain largely unknown. How can we explain why partners behave the way they do? We argue that studying automatic partner attitudes (i.e., one's spontaneous evaluations toward the partner), as assessed by implicit measures, is key to better understand and promote the functioning and the well-being of relationships. Because they are less sensitive to the positive illusions and other motivated reasoning processes that are ubiquitous in relationships, we posit that automatic partner attitudes reflect the pattern of affective experiences that people encounter with their partner and, thus, are the primary source of behaviour toward that partner. The overarching goal of the present project was to tackle this issue and test the crucial role of automatic partner attitudes for relationship functioning in two lines of research, using a combination of fine-grained longitudinal, observational and experimental methods. In the first line of research, we identified how these attitudes form and affect behaviour in dyadic interactions. Sampling real-life experiences from romantic couples over different time spans revealed that automatic partner attitudes uniquely capture the accumulation of relationship experiences over time and, in turn, predict certain behaviours that are central for relationship functioning. In the second line of research, we sought to intervene on such attitudes to improve relationship satisfaction. While both interventions improved relationship satisfaction, they did not affect automatic partner attitudes or behaviours. Taken together, these findings indicate that automatic partner attitudes play a central role in close relationships, but also highlight the challenge of directly targeting such attitudes through short-term interventions. By taking this integrative approach, the project advances research in relationship science, social cognition, and attitudes, while also informing strategies that can help couples and benefit society.

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