Perceived superiority of one's own relationship and perceived prevalence of happy and unhappy relationships.
In a study among 141 Dutch undergraduate students, the participants perceived their relationship on average as better than the relationships of most others, and assumed that a majority was happy and that only a minority was unhappy with their relationship. The higher the relationship satisfaction, the more one considered one's relationship as superior, the higher one estimated the percentage of individuals happy with their relationship, and the lower one estimated the percentage of individuals unhappy with their relationship. Overall, these three perceptions were independently related to relationship satisfaction. However, men's satisfaction was particularly related to the perception that one's own relationship was superior as well as to the assumption that few others were unhappy with their relationship, whereas women's satisfaction was particularly related to the assumption that most others were happy with their relationship.
Buunk
B P
BP
University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS Groningen, The Netherlands.
D000328:Adult; D003380:Courtship; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012938:Social Perception; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*