When your relationship is in crisis, the last thing on most of our minds is pictures of cute baby animals.
Sure, they could provide a welcome distraction in the midst of a heated discussion on who should take the garbage out, but for the most part relationship maintenance = zero cute animal pictures.
Well forget that out-dated way of thinking!
Thanks to a psychological trick known as evaluative conditioning, looking at cute animal pictures with your partner can guarantee you will feel happier and more satisfied in your relationship.
Bring on the puppies and baby sloth!
It works through a type of mental conditioning, where you associate one thing that generates a certain feeling with another thing that you already associate with a certain feeling. Or, to put it another way, it’s a change in liking as response to a positive or negative stimulus.
For example, you begin to associate your significant other with the same feelings that cute baby animals pictures bring up, including awe and affection.
This phenomena has been been backed by research from multiple groups including the Association for Psychological Science. They shared a study from a team of psychological scientists who put the idea to the test.
All the results reflected an increase in affection and relationship satisfaction after couples looked at cute animal pictures together.
James K. McNulty of Florida State University who led the study said, “I was actually a little surprised that it worked. All the theory I reviewed on evaluative conditioning suggested it should, but existing theories of relationships, and just the idea that something so simple and unrelated to marriage could affect how people feel about their marriage, made me skeptical.”
But this doesn’t mean you can solve every argument by bringing up a few puppy pictures on your phone. The research team would like to remind you that interactions between spouses are actually the most important factor for setting automatic associations, the cute baby animals pics are just are bonus.
