EXPLAINING PARTNER BEHAVIOR: DO PARTNERS SHOW LINGUISTIC BIASES DEPENDING ON THEIR LEVEL OF RELATIONSHIP SATISFACTION?

Abstract

The present study examined language used by partners in and out of romantic relationships when describing both negative and positive partner behavior to observe a potential bias that is often observed in other social groups. The researchers hypothesized that individuals currently in romantic relationships would use language with lower levels of abstraction to describe bad partners behavior but would use language with higher levels of abstraction to describe good partner behavior, thus displaying an overall pro-relationship language bias. The present study also examined relationship satisfaction, self-esteem and the levels of relationship interconnectivity to examine their role in the language bias. The researchers further predicted that the strength of this bias would be positively correlated with relationship satisfaction, given the link between other relationship biases and satisfaction. Participants viewed drawings that were meant to emulate typical positive and negative partner behavior and were given the option to describe the behavior in abstract or concrete ways. Participants also completed self-measures on relationships satisfaction, self-esteem and relationship interconnectivity. Inconsistent with the researcher's hypothesis, higher levels of relationship satisfaction were not associated with higher language bias however, higher levels of relationship interconnectivity were associated with higher language bias in describing negative partner behavior.