ScienceDaily: How to reduce the temptation for infidelity: Empathy
“One way to practice empathy is to try to adopt another person's perspective. Across three studies, the 408 total participants were randomly assigned to either adopt the perspective of their partner or not. All study participants had to be in a monogamous, mixed-sex (heterosexual) relationship of at least four months. As part of the experiments, the participants evaluated, encountered, or thought about attractive strangers while the psychologists recorded their expressions of interest in these strangers, as well as their commitment to and desire for their current partners.
The researchers concluded that adopting a partner's perspective increased commitment and desire for the partner, while simultaneously decreasing sexual and romantic interest in alternative mates. The findings suggest that perspective taking discourages people from engaging in behaviors that may hurt their partners and damage their relationship.
"Perspective taking doesn't prevent you from cheating, but it lessens the desire to do so," says Reis. Ultimately, he says, cheating means "prioritizing one's own goals over the good of the partner and the relationship, so seeing things from the other person's perspective gives one a more balanced view of these situations."
According to Birnbaum, the findings can help people understand how to resist short-term temptations: "Active consideration of how romantic partners may be affected by these situations serves as a strategy that encourages people to control their responses to attractive alternative partners and derogate their attractiveness."”
My Takeaways:
Research shows that empathy and perspective taking can reduce short-term temptations of infidelity in a relationship.
This relationship seems to be two fold, empathy and perspective taking can reduce sexual/romantic attraction in alternative mates and also increase feelings of commitment and desire for their current partner.
It is important to state that this study did not study the long-term effect of empathy on relationship longevity, however it did find a significant relationship in the short-term.
Full article is here!
What are important aspects of a healthy relationship?
#Relationship #Fidelity #Empathy
@sunnyWriting4806
A relationship built upon mutual understanding and trust creates a reliable resource for a persons support network, which translates into either mental, literal, or other kinds of aid a partner might need. However, without this mutual understanding and perspective you become detached from your partner as a "person" and more of just simple circumstance, as this relationship suddenly loses much of its value without perspective, most importantly personal value. As with all circumstances you wish to change them sooner to better fit you, so you do the same to your "partner" because you have chosen not to understand them.
@ayeyaeyaaaaaaaa
That's wonderfully said, people often forget that a relationship isn't a circumstance or an event rather it's the active process of learning and living with another person. The more we consider the long-term aspects and goals behind a relationship the more fidelity we're able to find.