For Couples, Reaction to Good News Matters More Than Reaction to Bad
Scientists who study relationships have long focused on how couples handle love’s headaches, the cold silences and searing blowups, the childcare crises and work stress, the fallouts over money and ex-lovers. But the way that partners respond to each other’s triumphs may be even more important for the health of a relationship, suggests a paper appearing in the current issue of The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The study found that the way a person responds to a partner’s good fortune — with excitement or passive approval, shared pride or indifference — is the most crucial factor in tightening a couple’s bond, or undermining it.