The Wishful Memory of Interpersonal Responsiveness

Perceived partner responsiveness, or trust in partners' care, positive regard, and commitment, is widely believed to be an important determinant of relationship quality. This trust may be based, in part, on memory of partners' prior behaviors, which may be biased. The current research provided support for the prediction that memories of partners' prior responsiveness are biased by perceivers' desires to bond with partners. A dyadic daily report study (Study 1) and a dyadic longitudinal study with a behavioral observation component (Study 2) suggested that perceivers' valuing of partners biased their memories of partners' behavior independently of perceivers' initial encoding, partners' sentiments, and partners' behavior. This bias was not explained by other potential sources of bias, including relationship satisfaction, attachment dimensions, trait self-esteem, and consistency effects. Results also suggested that responsiveness memories reduce emotional reactivity in response to current perceptions of partners' lack of responsiveness (Study 1) and contribute to global feelings of trust (Study 2). These results indicate that perceivers' memories of partners' prior responsiveness are shaped by their own desires to bond with partners and that biased responsiveness memories contribute to current trust and therefore have interpersonal significance.