Interpersonal trust and self-perception of heterosexual charm moderate potential for betraying one's romantic partner

• Published in: Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal 2015, Vol.43 (6), p.909
• Main Authors: Tu, Yangjun, Chen, Yaguang, Guo, Yi, Yang, Zhi, Jiang, Xin
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Subjects: College students; Female-male relations; Fidelity; Surveys; Trust (Psychology)
• ISSN: 0301-2212
• DOI: 10.2224/sbp.2015.43.6.909

We examined whether or not interpersonal trust and self-perception of one's heterosexual charm moderated the potential to betray one's romantic partner. To enable free expression, we asked college students (N = 271) to imagine the possibility of a relationship breakup occurring between couples described in 4 vignettes. The results showed that the men believed that couples were more likely to break up when the woman in the partnership experienced a dramatic change for the worse in her physical appearance, but the women thought that couples were more likely to break up when the man in the partnership experienced a dramatic worsening of his economic status. Interpersonal trust and self-perception of heterosexual charm more strongly affected the perception of the male participants that a couple would break up when there was a change for the worse in the physical appearance of the woman partner, and these 2 factors also strongly affected the perception of the female participants that a couple would break up when there was a dramatic worsening of the economic status of the man in the partnership. Keywords: emotional betrayal, mate selection, selection bias, economic status, physical appearance, romantic partner, interpersonal trust, heterosexual charm self-perception.