A Little Reminder Is All It Takes: The Effects of Priming and Relational Self-construal on Responses to Partner Transgressions

When faced with a partner transgression, what causes an individual to avoid the temptation to respond in kind? We theorized that for those who incorporate their close relationships into their sense of self, priming a mental representation of their romantic partner would activate relationship-relevant cognitive-affective associations that would promote pro-relationship responding. Dating undergraduates (N=140; 81 females) received either a partner or control prime and later completed a measure of relationship maintenance. Results demonstrated that participants with a highly relational self-construal exhibited an increase in benign attributions for a partner transgression following a relationship reminder, controlling for relationship satisfaction and commitment. It was concluded that relational self-construal is an important individual difference variable in the experimental activation of relationship maintenance processes.