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The 2 Things That Can Make or Break Your Relationship, According to Psychology

Research suggests how you handle disagreements and respond to your partner’s good news are both closely linked to relationship satisfaction.

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Most people know what a bad fight looks like. Someone gets defensive, someone says the thing they meant to keep to themselves, and now you’re both pissed.

But relationships also get tested when things are going well. One person gets good news, lands the promotion, finishes something they’ve been working on, and the other person has a chance to either meet them there or completely kill the moment.

A 2021 study in Frontiers in Psychology found that communication during positive moments was just as strongly linked to relationship satisfaction as communication during conflict. Put together, those two moments give you a pretty good look at the relationship: how you fight and........

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