Meeting “the friends”—that rite of passage in every new relationship when you test out your love on the other people you watch Netflix with. It’s also a trial run for meeting “the family,” as the latter is a clear sign that the relationship has gone from casual to super, duper serious (even The Bachelor saves family dates for last).
But what if I told you that your friends’ opinion of your significant other actually has a greater impact on your relationship satisfaction than your family’s opinion? A new study published in the Journal of Family Psychology found just that, at least in certain circumstances..
Researchers from Pace University and Hunter College of the City University of New York wanted to explore how judgements from friends, family, and society would affect the success of a relationship. And so they interviewed a total of 480 participants in same-sex (99 participants), interracial (288 participants), or same-sex and interracial romantic relationships (93 participants) about their relationship satisfaction—and any stigma they faced from the people around them.
The researchers looked specifically at these types of relationships because, despite growing tolerance, they are still more likely to be stigmatized compared to other relationships.