Highly exciting

Want a healthier, more satisfying relationship with your significant other?

Do different.

In a study, researcher Arthur Aron, PhD and professor of psychology at State University of New York-Stony Brook, and others (E. Aron, C. Norman, C. McKenna, & R. Heyman) randomly assigned couples to participate in activities that they together considered highly exciting (“novel and arousing”), or highly pleasant but not as exciting.

Drum roll, please, for the results…

The group who did highly exciting but only moderately pleasant activities had a much bigger increase in marital satisfaction,” Aron says.

[Aron, A., Norman, C. C., Aron, E.N., McKenna, C., & Heyman, R. (2000). Couples shared participation in novel and arousing activities and experienced relationship quality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 273-283. Find a few details below.]

I’m thinking now that must be why I’m wanting to go back to Zion National Park with Gregg to hike the ‘Angel’s Landing’ trail to the top. Silly me, I thought it was merely to enjoy the beauty…

Photo immediately above: last steep leg of trail,
Angel's Landing, Zion National Park.
Other photos above: along the way on Angel's Landing Trail

(Examples of "exciting": attending musical concerts, plays, lectures; skiing; hiking; going dancing; a new activity, or activity with new people. Pleasant examples: visiting friends, attending a movie, attending church, eating out. Key determinate for ‘exciting’ was for both partners to consider something unusual, new, interesting, challenging; for the study they did the activity together 1.5 hours/week for 10 weeks.)