Abstract
Language style matching (LSM) refers to similarity in function word use between two people during a conversation. Previous research has shown that LSM predicts romantic relationship stability, but it remains unknown why LSM is associated with stability. Across five studies from five different labs, we aimed to identify links between LSM and two relationship perceptions strongly associated with stability: commitment and satisfaction. Based on prior work, we hypothesized that LSM would be associated with commitment but not satisfaction. This hypothesis was supported in Study 1 (N = 82) but was not supported in Study 2 (N = 158). Preregistered analyses of three additional data sets (N = 198, 190, 138) were then conducted to attempt to replicate the effect between commitment and LSM. The predicted associations between LSM and commitment/satisfaction, measured concurrently and longitudinally, were not observed in Studies 3–5. Moreover, a meta-analysis across all 766 individuals (N = 383 couples) revealed that although the association between LSM and satisfaction was marginal (M r =.10, Z = 1.92, p =.05, confidence interval (CI) = −.002,.203), there was no link between LSM and commitment (M r =.05, Z = 0.97, p =.33, CI = −.052,.154). Across conflict discussions (i.e., in Studies 1 and 3–5), there were no associations between conflict LSM and satisfaction (M r =.09, Z = 1.49, p =.14, CI = −.028,.203) or commitment (M r =.03, Z = 0.50, p =.62, CI = −.087,.145). These findings suggest that if true associations between LSM and commitment and satisfaction exist, they are very small effects. They also emphasize the importance of replicating one’s own findings and illustrate a fruitful approach to replicating findings from high-investment studies through collaborating with researchers with similar data sets to increase statistical power and, in turn, reproducibility.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 2459-2481 |
Number of pages | 23 |
Journal | Journal of Social and Personal Relationships |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 8-9 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 1 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Study 2 was supported by a Young Scholars Grant from the Templeton Foundation and Positive Psychology Network awarded to Shelly L. Gable; Support for Study 3 was provided by the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics as part of the Lives of Teens Enterprise, and from the REACH Institute at Arizona State University to Thao Ha; Study 4 was supported by National Science Foundation (Grant BCS 9732476); Study 5 was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF)) Career Award #1552452 (Saxbe)), the National Institute of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, (Grant Number 1F31HD093107-01A1 (Khoddam)).
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Study 2 was supported by a Young Scholars Grant from the Templeton Foundation and Positive Psychology Network awarded to Shelly L. Gable; Support for Study 3 was provided by the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics as part of the Lives of Teens Enterprise, and from the REACH Institute at Arizona State University to Thao Ha; Study 4 was supported by National Science Foundation (Grant BCS 9732476); Study 5 was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF)) Career Award #1552452 (Saxbe)), the National Institute of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, (Grant Number 1F31HD093107-01A1 (Khoddam)).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
Keywords
- Close relationships
- commitment
- conflict
- language style matching
- reproducibility
- satisfaction