Accurate and biased perceptions of partner’s conflict behaviors shape emotional experience

Abstract

The present study examined both accuracy and bias in perceptions of romantic partners’ destructive behavior during relationship conflicts, as well as implications of accuracy and bias for emotional experience. Perceptions of partners’ destructive behavior during relationship conflicts were associated with indicators’ of partners’ behavior (i.e., target self-reports and objective coder ratings), suggesting that people were somewhat accurate in perceiving their partner’s destructive behavior. Independently of this accuracy effect, the more participants valued their relationship with their partner, the less destructive they interpreted their partner’s behavior to be during the conflict discussion, suggesting biases in perceptions of destructive behavior. These perceptions of destructive behavior, in turn, predicted emotional experience during the conflict. Results suggest that emotional experience during romantic relationship conflicts is dependent on both accurate and biased perceptions of partners’ behavior.