Imagining partner loss and mortality salience: Consequences for romantic-relationship satisfaction

As hypothesized, imagining the death of one's romantic partner (for those currently involved in a romantic relationship for at least one continuous year) enhanced relationship satisfaction; unexpectedly, imagining one's own death did not markedly affect relationship satisfaction (Experiment 1). Experiment 2 found that imagining the death of one's partner has an impact similar to imagining a positive experience with one's partner regarding relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, imagining the death of one's romantic partner causes the individual to favorably change his/her perceptions of certain personality characteristics of the partner. Experiment 3 examined the interactive effects that certain personality traits had on imagining either the death of oneself or of one's romantic partner with respect to self-reported relationship satisfaction. The applied and theoretical implications of this research are extensively discussed.