The Effect of Gaze on Romantic Relationships

4 Introduction 5 Method 11 Participants 11 Materials 12 Procedure 14 Design 17 Results 17 Discussion 18 References 24 Tables 28 Appendices 31 Running Head: EFFECT OF GAZE ON ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS 4 Abstract Amount of eye gaze has been correlated with relationship quality in married couples. Also, experimentally manipulated eye gaze has been shown to positively affect evaluations of strangers. The field lacks, however, experimental research on the effect of eye gaze on relationship quality in couples. Here, research entails experimental manipulation of eye gaze in couples. It was hypothesized that eye gazing would lead to an improvement in relationship quality. Participants were 61 couples who had been together for at least one month. Participants engaged in a task of communicating different emotions to their partner, while either looking intently at each other or while being unable to see each other due to wearing glasses that were covered with tape to obstruct vision. After the partner exercise, participants completed a questionnaire about relationship satisfaction, love, passion, and intimacy. No significant improvements in the relationship variables were found, and possible reasons for this outcome are discussed. Running Head: EFFECT OF GAZE ON ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS 5 The Effect of Gaze on Romantic Relationships Intimate relationships are fundamentally important to social life. Most people either marry or enter into a relationship at some point during their lives (Bramlett & Mosher, 2002). For many people, this relationship is very important to them, yet 33% of marriages break up within the first ten years (Bramlett & Mosher, 2002). The popularity of self-help books attests to the fact that most individuals want their relationships to last. People also go to marriage counselors for answers, and about 70 to 75% of these relationships do see some improvement through marriage counseling (Snyder & Halford, 2012). Yet, after only two years, 45% see deterioration again (Snyder & Halford, 2012). Therefore, while the field of marriage therapy has made important strides in helping people, there is still room for improvement. Most research in the field of marriage therapy has focused on fixing negative aspects of the relationship instead of enhancing positive aspects (Kauffman & Silberman, 2009). Yet, evidence has shown that a ratio of positive to negative interactions of 5 to 1 predicts marriage stability (Gottman, 2004). Therefore, there is a great need to also research the interactions that can have a positive influence on relationships. One important interaction is the amount of gaze two people share. Gaze is an important component of our interaction with others. Beginning in infancy, gaze is an important part of how we communicate with caregivers; babies are able to use the informational cues conveyed from the eyes of adults when the actions of the adults are ambiguous (Phillips, Baron-Cohen, & Rutter, 1992). Adults also use gaze to convey important information in social situations. For example, people use mutual gaze to show interest in one another and when they want to get closer to one another, but it is withheld when they want to avoid closeness or show lack of interest (Kleinke, 1986). Therefore, people can use eye contact to tell them whether another person likely wants to be approached or be left alone. Looking at another communicates important information (Mason, Tatkow, & Macrae, 2005). Also, people who use eye contact consistently are viewed as more intelligent than people who avoid eye contact Running Head: EFFECT OF GAZE ON ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS 6 (Murphy, Hall, & Colvin, 2003). Further, not being looked at by another can have a negative effect. For example, participants who did not get looked at felt excluded, ignored, angry, hurt, sad, and reported lower self-esteem, when compared to the control group who received consistent eye contact (Wirth, Sacco, Hugenberg, & Williams, 2010). So, the time one spends looking at another can have important consequences for how the other feels. Especially in a relationship--how another makes one feel is