Believing in a ‘Heavenly’ Relationship may Not be a Good Thing

Believing that you were destined to be with your partner may not be a good thing after a new study reveals that people who believe their partners to be their ‘soulmates’ endure an unhappy relationship. The researchers said that findings corroborate prior research showing that people who implicitly think of relationships as perfect unity between soulmates have worse relationships than people who implicitly think of relationships as a journey of growing and working things out.

Spike W. S. Lee of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management said that different ways of talking and thinking about love relationship lead to different ways of evaluating it.

According to the study, recalling conflicts leads people to feel less satisfied with their relationship-but only with the unity frame in mind, not with the journey frame in mind, while recalling celebrations makes people satisfied with their relationship regardless of how they think about it.

The researchers concluded that if couples think of their relationship as a journey, then they will feel better that moment and even after a few years down the road.

The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Source-ANI