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How Partner Reacts to Your Good News Is Vital

Although people may fret over how their partner responds to bad news, a new study shows that how couples react to each other's good news is in fact a better indicator of relationship health.

Researchers questions 79 couples about how their partners reacted to various positive events in their lives and videotaped couples discussing various triumphs in a lab setting. They also had couples rate their relationship satisfaction during this time and two months later.

Analyzing the data, researchers learned that responses to positive events--not negative ones--were a much stronger predictor of how happy couples would be both at the time of the survey and two months later. Not only is this because positive events are more common researchers say, but also because ignoring accomplishments can be particularly belittling and lets a chance to bond with your partner slip away.

"When something good happens to your partner, it's a terrific opportunity to strengthen the relationship -- that's what this study really says," said Art Aron, a social psychologist at Stony Brook University in New York, who was not part of the study. "It fits with this whole thrust in the field, focusing on how to make things better rather than trying to avoid making them worse."