The Impact of Recognizing a Romantic Partner's Character Strengths on Relationship Satisfaction

Previous research indicates that identifying character strengths in oneself is beneficial. The present study investigated whether interventions focused on assisting individuals in recognizing strengths in romantic partners would influence relationship satisfaction. A randomized experimental design was used to assign a total of 243 participants (mean age = 37.3, SD = 12.1) to one of the following three conditions: identification of partner strengths, a curiosity prime followed by identification of partner strengths, and a control condition consisting of reflecting on neutral partner preferences. Participants in each condition rated their current relationship satisfaction and curiosity regarding their partners' strengths. Participants in the recognition of partner character strengths condition reported significantly more relationship satisfaction compared to participants the control group. There were no other significant differences between groups. The findings suggest that character strength interventions could be used to improve partner relationship quality.