Title of article :
You do not only hurt the one you love: Self-protective responses to attractive relationship alternatives
Author/Authors :
Plant، نويسنده , , E. Ashby and Kunstman، نويسنده , , Jonathan W. and Maner، نويسنده , , Jon K.، نويسنده ,
Issue Information :
ماهنامه با شماره پیاپی سال 2010
Pages :
4
From page :
474
To page :
477
Abstract :
Committed romantic relationships confer important benefits to psychological health and well-being. However, to effectively maintain these relationships, individuals must avoid threats posed by the temptation of attractive relationship alternatives. Previous work has demonstrated that individuals in committed relationships consciously downplay the allure of romantic alternatives. The current work tested the hypothesis that attractive relationship alternatives evoke an automatic self-protective response at an early stage of cognition. The current study employed a computer simulation that recorded automatic, split-second assessments of threat elicited by social targets that varied in their gender and level of attractiveness. Consistent with hypotheses, attractive opposite-sex targets evoked automatic self-protective responses from participants in committed heterosexual relationships. Moreover, these responses seemed to be particularly pronounced among the male participants in committed relationships. These findings have implications for the maintenance of long-term close relationships.
Keywords :
gender , Romantic Relationships , Relationship maintenance , attraction , Physical attractiveness
Journal title :
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Serial Year :
2010
Journal title :
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Record number :
1959382
Link To Document :
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