Responses to a happily married other:The role of relationship satisfaction and social comparison orientation

A study among 103 married individuals examined how the responses to a story about an individual with a happy marriage that was characterized by either high or low effort were moderated by relationship satisfaction and social comparison orientation (SCO). As individuals were higher in SCO, the high-effort couple evoked more positive affect and more identification and the low-effort couple evoked more negative affect and less identification. Furthermore, the higher the SCO, the more positive affect and identification those high in relationship satisfaction experienced in response to the targets. In the high-effort condition, but not in the low-effort condition, identification mediated between relationship satisfaction and SCO and the affective responses. Independent of induced effort, a higher degree of perceived effort was, especially among those high in relationship satisfaction, associated with a higher level of identification. Finally, relationship satisfaction induced relatively more identification with the target among men, married people, and relatively older people.