6Long-Term Married Partners Tend to Retrospectively Report a U-Shaped Change

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The Answer is Retrospective memories are inaccurate and systematically biased. Because the memory process is flexible, it allows people to remember the past in ways that justify current feelings about the relationship and to forget information that might threaten those feelings. Thus, most people fail to remember that their relationship satisfaction has declined over time and instead view their relationships as having improved recently, which fits with their views that their relationships are growing and improving and likely to do so in the future. These biases help people maintain their existing positive feelings about being in their relationships and prevent threatening information (e.g., our relationship is deteriorating) from entering awareness.

6Long-Term Married Partners Tend to Retrospectively Report a U-Shaped Change

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