Episode description

Jim McNulty is a professor of psychology at Florida State University. He studies close relationships, and in this episode, we talk about his research on "automatic partner attitudes." When someone sees their romantic partner, their feelings about that person spring automatically to mind. And sometimes those feelings conflict with what they openly SAY they feel about their partner. Jim shares his findings from studies that measure people's feelings toward their partners.

Things that come up in this episode

• A longitudinal study of newlyweds shows how automatic attitudes are related to relationship outcomes years later (McNulty et al., 2013)
• Automatic evaluations of one's partner are related to relationship satisfaction (Turner & McNulty, 2020)
• Interventions that improve people's evaluations of their partners improve relationships outcomes (McNulty et al., 2017)
• A recent paper summarizing Jim's work on automatic evaluations of one's partner (Faure et al., 2024)

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