Beautiful, but not so Nice in Memory: Romantic Relationship Status Biases the Processing of an Attractive Alternative’s Behavior

Prior research demonstrated that romantically involved individuals devaluate the physical attractiveness of potential alternative mates (i.e., the derogation effect). The present research examines whether romantically involved individuals also process behavioral information of attractive alternatives in a biased manner. When presented with behavioral information of an attractive mate, Study 1 demonstrated that involved participants recalled more negative behaviors, and also evaluated these behaviors more negatively, compared to uninvolved participants. Study 2 demonstrated that romantically involved participants recalled more negative (but also neutral) behaviors when it concerned behaviors displayed by an attractive alternative as compared to a same-sex other. Together, these results provide initial evidence that relationship status biases the processing of an attractive alternative’s behavior negatively, most clearly demonstrated in how these behaviors are stored in memory. This biased processing of behavioral information may serve an important relationship protection function when confronted with a potential alternative mate.