When more means less: the impact of instrumentality dilution on evaluations of romantic relationships

ABSTRACT

The present research applies the principles of goal pursuit to understand how people evaluate their romantic partners. Recent theoretical work suggests that people serve as means to one’s goals and have conceptualized romantic partners as multifinal means (fulfilling multiple goals). One consequence of a means being multifinal is that its instrumentality to any given goal is reduced, or diluted, with important consequences for how the means is evaluated. Specifically, people might prefer multifinal means because they are more valuable when they pursue multiple goals. However, when only one goal is accessible and important in the moment, multifinal means might be perceived as less instrumental and might be valued less. In these instances, people might prefer a means that only fulfills that goal. Applied to the context of romantic relationships, individuals may become relatively less satisfied with their multifinal romantic partners when one goal becomes particularly important. We tested this hypothesis by experimentally manipulating the number of accessible goals. We did not find support for the dilution hypothesis in the context of romantic relationships.

KEYWORDS:

• Relationships
• motivation
• goals
• satisfaction
• dilution

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in our Open Science Foundation (OSF) repository at http://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/XK3VN.

Notes

1. Online and in-person samples did not significantly differ on the outcomes of interest.

2. There was no significant effect of order on either rating task (Instrumentality: t(319) = .63, p = .532; Importance: t(319) = .48, p = .631).