A study concluded that complaining to a partner about a bad day is not only a way, but also contributes to further intimacy.
A study led by the University of Jena in Germany involved 100 couples, half of whom were between the ages of 20 and 30, and the other half between the ages of 70 and 80.
Both partners were asked to individually rate their close relationship and then participate in a three-week diary study.
They filled out a questionnaire on their phone six times a day and were asked to remember if they had experienced something “very emotional” recently and if they had told their partner about it.
They also rated how angry, sad, frustrated, and anxious they felt, and how close they felt to their partner at the time.
Two and a half years later, couples were again asked to rate the closeness of their relationship, and the results reported that participants felt closer to their partner after saying or hearing something about an unpleasant event.
Sharing these problems with a partner also seems to have lasting effects. People whose partners regularly described their negative experiences reported an increase in closeness over 2.5 years.
They also found that when men encountered an unpleasant event, they reported less negative moods when they told their partner about it.
Women did not show the same benefit, but reported more negative moods. If their partner told them they had a bad experience, they said they were upset to know their partner was having a bad day.
Writing in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, the researchers wrote that sharing bad experiences with a partner brings couples of all ages together in both the short and long term, though with opposite effects on mood.
“These effects may explain why people often share bad news with others,” the researchers said.
Source: Daily Mail
Source: Arabic RT
