A new paper from our lab- Truth and bias in daily judgments of support receipt between romantic part

A new paper from our lab was just published in Personal Relationships. The paper, co-written with two of my students (DR [!!!] Eran Bar-Kalifa and Haran Sened) combines ideas from our support and empathic accuracy research branches. It examines the ways in which partners perceive the support they receive, and the ways their perception is biased by the support they themselves provide. Yet one more illustration of the coolness of the truth-and-bias model (thanks Tessa West and Dave Kenny!). The study is based on data gathered in our previous ISF grant.

Here's the paper's abstract:

The perception that a partner is supportive, tied to beneficial relational and personal outcomes, may be shaped by reality (the partner’s actual support) but is often also biased. Using T. V. West and D. A. Kenny ’s (2011) truth-and-bias model, the balance between truth and one bias type—the tendency to maintain perceived mutuality by projecting one’s own supportiveness onto one’s partner—was examined. It was hypothesized that this balance will be altered by the behavior’s psychological significance and by the scope of the behavior being judged. In a 35-day diary, 80 couples

reported perceived and provided emotional/practical support. Participants’ judgments included less biased projection when they addressed behaviors of lower emotional significance or greater contextual specificity.

link to the paper