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Accurate and biased perceptions of responsive support predict well-being

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Abstract

The current research examined effects of accurate and biased perceptions of romantic partners’ responsive support provision on perceivers’ well-being. Perceivers discussed a personal problem with their romantic partners (“targets”). Perceivers’ perceptions of targets’ responsive support following the discussion were related to external indicators of targets’ behavior, but these perceptions also were predicted by perceivers’ sentiments toward targets, suggesting that processes underlying perceivers’ perceptions were a blend of both accuracy and bias. In addition, both accurately perceived and biased perceptions of targets’ responsiveness predicted perceivers’ personal well-being (i.e., affect, coping, self-efficacy) and interpersonal well-being (i.e., more positive sentiments toward targets) immediately after the support interaction, 2 weeks later, and 6 months later. Results suggest that accurate and biased cognition during interpersonal interactions can have important consequences for perceivers’ personal and interpersonal well-being through effects on perceived partner responsiveness.

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Notes

  1. Despite our description of romantic involvement as an eligibility criterion, 19 relationships (7.7 %) were described as friendships. It is unclear whether these relationships are casual romantic relationships or whether they are platonic friendships. Responses from these participants were retained in our analyses.

  2. Perceivers who failed to complete the 6-month follow-up did not significantly differ from perceivers who completed the 6-month follow-up on initial valuing of targets, trust, positive reframing, self-distraction, self-efficacy, positive affect, negative affect, felt acceptance, perceptions of targets' responsive behavior, or the index of targets' responsive behavior. However, perceivers who completed the 6-month follow-up did have higher scores on the index of active planning/coping (M = 6.31) relative to participants who did not complete the follow-up (M = 5.88), t(242) = −2.03, p < .05.

  3. One SD below the mean on the index of perceivers' valuing still represented absolutely positive sentiments because of the high mean (M = 7.78, SD = .94). When we examined discrepancies for perceivers who scored 2 SDs below the mean on valuing of targets, the underestimation effect reached conventional significance levels, b = −.53, t = −.2.71, p < .01.

  4. In models predicting perceivers’ valuing of targets, we used subsequent valuing, rather than a residual change score, as the criterion because the residual change score would be purged of all variance associated with earlier valuing of targets and therefore using this score as the criterion would preclude us from testing the mediation model depicted in Fig. 1 (i.e., it would be impossible to examine the total, direct, and indirect effects of perceivers' earlier valuing of targets). Moreover, by including earlier valuing of targets as a predictor, this model controls for initial standing on the criterion, similar to the models predicting other outcomes. Hence, this model involves the same statistical rigor as the other models.

  5. Technically, these total effects should be considered adjusted total effects because they are adjusted for the other predictor in the model. That is, the effect of targets' behavior is adjusted for perceivers' sentiments and vice versa.

  6. The effects of targets' responsive behavior and perceivers' valuing on change in perceivers' self-efficacy reversed direction in Model 2 relative to Model 1, indicating statistical suppression. Under conditions of statistical suppression, a significant total effect of a predictor on an outcome is not necessary to demonstrate indirect effects (see MacKinnon et al. 2000; Shrout and Bolger 2002).

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Acknowledgments

We thank members of the Interpersonal Relationships Lab, University of New Hampshire, for their assistance with data collection and coding, including Kevin Cannon, Christine Coyne, Heather Balch, Manuel Lopez, Aparecio Peggins, Ryan Keene, Monica Rosskothen, Ashley Scheidegger, Choe Shannon, Kerry Spongberg, and Benjamin Stucker. Other findings from this study have been published elsewhere (Lemay and Neal 2013; Lemay and Melville in press), but none of the findings reported in the current manuscript have been previously reported. This research was supported by a research grant awarded to the first author by the National Science Foundation (grant number BCS 1145349).

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  1. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Edward P. Lemay Jr.

  2. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA

    Angela M. Neal

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Correspondence to Edward P. Lemay Jr..

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Lemay, E.P., Neal, A.M. Accurate and biased perceptions of responsive support predict well-being. Motiv Emot 38, 270–286 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-013-9381-2

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