Inattentive and contented: Relationship commitment and attention to alternatives.

Abstract

Commitment to a relationship is affected by the quality of one's alternatives to that partnership, but one must be aware of those alternatives in order for them to be influential. In a study of the links between attention to one's alternatives and relational outcomes, participants described their relationships, inspected slides of attractive opposite-sex targets, and, 2 months later, reported whether their relationships had ended. Satisfaction with, investment in, commitment to, and adjustment in a dating relationship were negatively correlated with reports of vigilance toward desirable alternatives to that relationship. In the lab, those who had earlier claimed to be attentive to alternatives really did spend more time inspecting pictures of attractive opposite-sex targets. Moreover, there was no better predictor of relationship failure than high attentiveness to alternatives. Inattentiveness may be a maintenance mechanism that helps to preserve and protect desirable relationships. Even if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, happy gardeners will be less likely to notice.

Cites (2)

1. Illusion and well‐being: A social psychological perspective on mental health
   Taylor, Shelley E., Brown, Jonathon D. · 1988 · Psychological Bulletin
2. Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory
   Shiffrin, Richard M., Schneider, Walter · 1977 · Psychological Review

Show all 2 references

Cited by (15)

1. Whence Consumer Loyalty?
   Oliver, Richard L. · 1999 · Journal of Marketing
2. The Ties That Bind: Measuring the Strength of Consumers’ Emotional Attachments to Brands
   Thomson, Matthew, MacInnis, Deborah J., Whan Park, C. · 2005 · Journal of Consumer Psychology
3. Self-regulation, ego depletion, and motivation
   Baumeister, Roy F., Vohs, Kathleen D. · 2007 · Social and Personality Psychology Compass
4. Interdependence, Interaction, and Relationships
   Rusbult, Caryl E., Van Lange, Paul A. M. · 2003 · Annual Review of Psychology
5. Online Dating: A Critical Analysis From the Perspective of Psychological Science
   Finkel, Eli J., Eastwick, Paul W., Karney, Benjamin R., Reis, Harry T., Sprecher, Susan · 2012 · Psychological Science in the Public Interest

See all 293