Trait and facet personality similarity and relationship and life satisfaction in romantic couples.

Previous research has shown that personality similarity plays a negligible role in explaining the life and relationship satisfaction of couples. However, similarity in more proximally measured personality (i.e., facets) might explain additional variance in partners' well-being. The current study examined if in a sample of 1294 female-male romantic couples individual and partner personality traits and facets were associated with life and relationship satisfaction in expected ways. Similarity in personality traits and facets was not robustly associated with either life or relationship satisfaction of partners. The results are discussed in the context of the predictive validity of personality facets.

Partner Accuracy in Humor Perception and Associations With Relationship Satisfaction.

Do people accurately perceive their partner's humor style? The current study extends work on partner perception by examining accuracy and bias in people's perception of their partners' humor styles-a subjective, evaluative, and important factor in relationship satisfaction. We recruited 337 heterosexual couples (N = 674 individuals, Mage = 65.71 years, SD = 12.107) who completed self-reports and partner-reports of humor styles. Truth and Bias modeling revealed that, although bias varied across humor styles, participants consistently demonstrated accuracy in their judgments of their partner's humor styles. Bias forces were moderated by relationship satisfaction such that assumed similarity biases were stronger among those in particularly satisfying relationships.

Individual difference predictors of starting a new romantic relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dramatic social changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the dating scene and the likelihood of people starting new relationships. What factors make individuals more or less likely to start a new relationship during this period? In a sample of 2285 college students (M age  = 19.36, SD = 1.44; 69.2% women; 66.7% White) collected from October 2020 to April 2021, anxiously attached and extraverted people were 10-26% more likely to start a new relationship. Avoidantly attached and conscientious people were 15-17% less likely to start a new relationship. How people pursued (or avoided) new romantic relationships closely mirrored their broader patterns of health and interpersonal behavior during the global pandemic.

Loved and lost or never loved at all? Lifelong marital histories and their links with subjective well-being.

Marriage has been linked to higher well-being. However, previous research has generally examined marital status at one point in time or over a relatively short window of time. In order to determine if different marital histories have unique impacts on well-being in later life, we conducted a marital sequence analysis of 7,532 participants from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (54.2% women; M age = 66.68, SD = 8.50; 68.7% White/Caucasian). Three different marital sequence types emerged: a "consistently-married" group (79%), a "consistently-single" group (8%), and a "varied histories" group (13%), in which individuals had moved in and out of various relationships throughout life. The consistently-married group was slightly higher in well-being at the end of life than the consistently-single and varied histories groups; the latter two groups did not differ in their well-being. The results are discussed in the context of why marriage is linked to well-being across the lifespan.