Michael R. Maniaci

Are you happy for me? How sharing positive events with others provides personal and interpersonal benefits.

Sharing good news with others is one way that people can savor those experiences while building personal and interpersonal resources. Although prior research has established the benefits of this process, called capitalization, there has been little research and no experiments to examine the underlying mechanisms. In this article, we report results from 4 experiments and 1 daily diary study conducted to examine 2 mechanisms relevant to capitalization: that sharing good news with others increases the perceived value of those events, especially when others respond enthusiastically, and that enthusiastic responses to shared good news promote the development of trust and a prosocial orientation toward the other. These studies found consistent support for these effects across both interactions with strangers and in everyday close relationships.

The expression of compassionate love in everyday compassionate acts

Compassionate love (CL) is a form of altruistic, caring love that emphasizes concern for the other’s well-being. How is CL expressed in marriage? To address this question, we adopted a behavioral acts perspective in which we examined among newlyweds the presence or absence of a series of behavioral manifestations of CL. A sample of 175 newlywed couples completed daily diaries for 2 weeks, describing their own compassionate acts and their perceptions of their partners’ compassionate acts. We found clear evidence that CL acts contributed to both spouses’ daily marital satisfaction. These effects were independent of general positivity or negativity of behavior. We also employed a quasi-signal detection analysis to determine whether acts that both partners recognize as compassionate are more influential than acts that only one of them acknowledges. This hypothesis was supported. Our findings indicate that CL-related behavior represents a beneficial form of caring interaction that merits further attention in relationship research.

In Live Interaction, Does Familiarity Promote Attraction or Contempt? Reply to Norton, Frost, and Ariely (2011)

In this reply, we address and refute each of Norton, Frost, and Arielys (see record 2011-18560-001) specific objections to the conclusion that, ceteris paribus, familiarity breeds liking in live interaction. In particular, we reiterate the importance of studying live interaction rather than decontextualized processes. These rebuttals notwithstanding, we concur with Norton et al.s call for an integrative model that encompasses both Norton, Frost, and Arielys (see record 2006-23056-008) results and ours (see record 2011-04644-001), and we point readers toward a description of a possible model presented in our original article.

When Does Familiarity Promote Versus Undermine Interpersonal Attraction? A Proposed Integrative Model From Erstwhile Adversaries

This article began as an adversarial collaboration between two groups of researchers with competing views on a longstanding question: Does familiarity promote or undermine interpersonal attraction? As we explored our respective positions, it became clear that the limitations of our conceptualizations of the familiarity–attraction link, as well as the limitations of prior research, were masking a set of higher order principles capable of integrating these diverse conceptualizations. This realization led us to adopt a broader perspective, which focuses on three distinct relationship stages—awareness, surface contact, and mutuality—and suggests that the influence of familiarity on attraction depends on both the nature and the stage of the relationship between perceivers and targets. This article introduces the framework that emerged from our discussions and suggests directions for research to investigate its validity.

Compassionate acts and everyday emotional well-being among newlyweds.

Compassion is deeply prized in Western marriages yet its benefits for emotional well-being have been investigated empirically only rarely. This research examined the association between compassionate acts and everyday emotional well-being in 175 newlywed couples. Following prior research and theory, we defined compassionate acts as caregiving that is freely given, focused on understanding and genuine acceptance of the other’s needs and wishes, and expressed through openness, warmth, and a willingness to put a partner’s goals ahead of one’s own. We adopted an explicitly dyadic perspective so that we could consider how compassionate acts as well as their recognition influence the affective state of both donors and recipients. Our findings, which controlled for the general affective tone of marital interaction, revealed that compassionate acts are beneficial for both donors and recipients, and that the effects on the donor are stronger than the effects on the recipient. Moreover, we found that whereas recipients’ benefits depend on their noticing the donors’ actions, donors benefit regardless of whether the recipients explicitly notice the compassionate acts. The pattern of results for husbands and wives was very similar. These results suggest that in terms of emotional well-being, for donors, acting compassionately may be its own reward.

Positive and Negative Evaluation of Relationships: Development and Validation of the Positive–Negative Relationship Quality (PN-RQ) Scale.

Three studies were undertaken to develop the Positive–Negative Relationship Quality scale (PN-RQ), conceptualizing relationship quality as a bidimensional construct in which the positive qualities of a relationship are treated as distinct from its negative qualities. Analyses in emerging adults (Study 1: N = 1,814), in online respondents (Study 2: N = 787) with a 2-week follow-up, and in a single group pre-intervention–post-intervention study (Study 3: N = 54) of the Promoting Awareness, Improving Relationships (PAIR) program provided support for (a) positive and negative qualities as distinct dimensions via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), (b) the PN-RQ representing an item response theory-optimized measure of these 2 dimensions, (c) substantive differences between indifferent (low positive and negative qualities) and ambivalent (high positive and negative qualities) relationships potentially obscured by unidimensional scales, (d) high levels of responsiveness of the PN-RQ scales to change over time, (e) the unique predictive validity offered over time by the PN-RQ scores beyond that offered by scores of current unidimensional measures of relationship quality, and (f) the unique longitudinal information gained by using the PN-RQ as a bidimensional outcome measure in an intervention study. Taken together, the studies offer promising support for the PN-RQ scales suggesting that they have the potential to advance both basic and applied research.

Does support need to be seen? Daily invisible support promotes next day relationship well-being.

Direct and overt visible support promotes recipients’ relationship satisfaction but can also exacerbate negative mood. In contrast, subtle and indirect invisible support can bypass costs to mood, but it is unclear whether it undermines or boosts relationship satisfaction. Because invisible support is not perceived by recipients, its relational impact may be delayed across time. Thus, the current research used three dyadic daily diary studies (total N = 322 married couples) to explore, for the first time, both the immediate (same day) and lagged (next day) effects of visible and invisible support on recipients’ mood and relationship satisfaction. Consistent with prior research, visible support was associated with recipients reporting greater relationship satisfaction and greater anxiety the same day. In contrast, but also consistent with prior research, invisible support had no significant same-day effects, and thus avoided mood costs. Nevertheless, invisible support was associated with recipients reporting greater relationship satisfaction the next day. Study 3 provided evidence that such effects emerged because invisible support was also associated with greater satisfaction with partners’ helpful behaviors (e.g., household chores) and relationship interactions (e.g., time spent together) on the next day. These studies demonstrate the importance of assessing different temporal effects associated with support acts (which may otherwise go undetected) and provide the first evidence that invisible support enhances relationship satisfaction but does so across days.