Creativity and romantic passion.

Abstract

Romantic passion typically declines over time, but a downward trajectory is not inevitable. Across three studies (one of which encompassed two sub-studies), we investigated whether creativity helps bolster romantic passion in established relationships. Studies 1A and 1B revealed that people with highly creative personalities report not only greater overall passion, but also an attenuation in the tendency for passion to decline as relationship duration increases. Studies 2 and 3 explored positive illusions about the partner's physical attractiveness as a possible mediator of the effect of creativity on passion. Cross-lagged panel analyses in Study 2 indicated that being creative is linked to a tendency to view the partner as especially attractive, even relative to the partner's own self-assessment. Path analyses in Study 3 provided longitudinal evidence consistent with the hypothesis that positive illusions about the partner's attractiveness (participant's assessments, controlling for objective coding of the partner's attractiveness) mediate the link between creativity and changes in passion over time. Study 3 also provided longitudinal evidence of the buffering effect of creativity on passion trajectories over time, an effect that emerged not only for self-reported passion, but also for objectively coded passion during a laboratory-based physical intimacy task nine months later. A meta-analytic summary across studies revealed a significant overall main effect of creativity on passion, as well as a significant moderation effect of creativity on risks of passion decline (e.g., relationship length).

What fuels passion? An integrative review of competing theories of romantic passion

“…Although all four models and theories share some commonalities, such as largely being in‐line with the empirically supported assertion that passion should normatively decrease over time after an initial spike (Acker & Davis, 1992; Carswell et al., 2019; Tucker & Aron, 1993), they offer divergent views of what ultimately causes passion. In particular, the Rate of Change in Intimacy Model and Limerence Theory appear to offer conflicting views on what drives passion, especially with regards to partner responsiveness.…”

“…In one study, for instance, couples assigned to engage in escalating self‐disclosure with another couple (the “fast friends” task discussed earlier) displayed greater subsequent passion for their romantic partner compared to couples assigned to engage in a small‐talk control task with another couple (Welker et al., 2014). Similarly, individuals with more creative personalities (i.e., personal traits and dispositions associated with individuals judged to be more creative) and who engage in more creative behaviors—behaviors that likely result in self‐expansion—are better able to maintain romantic passion over time compared to less creative individuals (Carswell et al., 2019).…”

“…Struck by cupid's arrow, the prince is overcome by the beauty of a princess; the romantic comedy heroine helplessly succumbs to her irrepressible attraction for the insufferable, but strangely appealing male lead; and on the flip side, the reality dating show star laments that “there just wasn’t that spark.” Research over the past several decades has begun to converge on a definition of romantic passion, however, a consensus has yet to emerge on what ultimately fuels and snuffs out such illusive passionate feelings. To help illuminate how passion develops, dissipates, and how it might be revived, we review four different theories and models of romantic passion from relationship science to better understand the source of this sought‐after, but hard‐to‐attain state (Carswell & Finkel, 2018; Carswell et al., 2019; Hatfield & Rapson, 2006; Simpson et al., 1986). Given that these models and theories have largely been proposed and investigated independently, we aim to highlight how these different perspectives diverge in their predictions and might be better integrated into a more comprehensive model of romantic passion.…”

Exploring the Psychological Processes That Underlie Interpersonal Forgiveness: Replication and Extension of the Model of Motivated Interpersonal Forgiveness

“…This finding raises intriguing questions regarding motivated reasoning processes. One conceptualization of motivated reasoning used in the present research (as well as Donovan and Priester, 2017 ) is positive illusions (e.g., Murray and Holmes, 1997 , 1999 ; Carswell et al, 2019 ). The conceptualization of motivated reasoning as positive illusions leads to an intuition that such illusion emerges through increases in positivity by means of increased positive thoughts.…”

Who are “We”? Couple Identity Clarity and Romantic Relationship Commitment

“… 10. We aimed to recruit as many participants as possible over an academic quarter. See Carswell & Finkel, 2018; Carswell, Finkel, & Kumashiro, 2019; Emery, Gardner, Carswell, & Finkel, 2018; Emery, Gardner, Finkel, & Carswell, 2018 for additional use of this dataset. …”