It could actually be better for your relationship if your significant other doesn’t “complete” you.
Depending on how committed you are, people often call their boo their “better half.” According to a new study in the “Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,” though, that concept is not necessarily a great thing.
Researchers tested 73 people, who had been monogamous on any level (committed, engaged or married) for at least six months prior to participating in the study. Test subjects were asked to pick out five phrases they’d heard before, including “my better half” and “made for each other.” There were also phrases like “look how far we’ve come,” which would indicate progress.
Participants, who weren’t aware of the context of this quiz, were exposed to one of two patterns of thought: unity vs. journey.
Subjects were then asked to describe two fights and two celebratory moments from their relationships before rating how happy they were with their relationships overall. Later, the participants had to pick pairs of shapes that either leaned toward unity or more of journey.
It was found that the people who had been exposed to the “we” mentality were less satisfied with their relationships after talking about a fight. This could be because they were holding their real life relationship up to a standard of perfection that no couple ever reaches. Needing your partner to live up to an idealized version of what a significant other should be, ultimately only harms the relationship.
People that were able to think of relationships more in terms of a journey didn’t let the memory of a fight negatively affect their level of satisfaction. This is because they saw fights as a natural part of any romantic relationship, and some even took it as an opportunity to grow within it.
While it can be fun to imagine that you and your partner were made for each other, this thinking prompts couples to forget that they’re actually two different people who have paired up. When you bring two different sets of experiences and patterns of thought together, there will be disagreements–and that’s okay. Fights are not necessarily an indicator of how compatible two people actually are. It just means they look at things a little differently, and they need to talk things out in order to understand one another a little better. It could be worse!
Love Is Not A Fairytale: New Study Shows More Realistic People Are Happier In Their Love Lives was originally published on hellobeautiful.com
