You Don't Really Love Me,Do You? Negative Effects of Imagine-Other Perspective-Taking on Lower Self-Esteem Individuals' Relationship Well-Being

Two studies demonstrated that active efforts to appreciate a romantic partner's unique point of view (imagine-other perspective-taking) lead individuals lower in self-esteem (lses) to feel less loved by their partner and less satisfied with their relationship as a result. these effects were evident regardless of whether individuals' perspective-taking efforts involved reflecting specifically on a disagreement with their partner (study 2) or not (study 1). the studies thus identify a new path through which perspective-taking efforts can detract from relational well-being,one to which lses are uniquely vulnerable. results from an open-ended thought-listing task administered in study 2 confirmed that increased cognitive energy lses devoted to drawing (negative) metaperceptual inferences about their partner's evaluation of them contributed to the negative effect of imagine-other perspective-taking on their perceived regard. no such effects were evident for individuals higher in self-esteem,and imagine-self perspective-taking instead exerted a general positive influence on individuals' evaluations of their partner. © 2013 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.