Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 16, 2026

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies
Published on: August 25, 2023
Perceiving being single as inherently negative: when participant ratings of another person's life satisfaction rely
Nikola Komlenac1, Carmen Mair2, Andreas Walther3,4
1Institute for Diversity in Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria. nikola.komlenac@i-med.ac.at.
Abstract:
The belief that every person has a strong desire to be in a committed relationship can lead to stereotyping of single people. The present study examined whether people judge another person's life satisfaction differently based solely on information about that person's relationship status. We conducted a cross-sectional study among 1,241 participants (Mage = 40.3, SD = 13.0; 57.3% cisgender women, 40.8% cisgender men, and 1.9% gender minority individuals) in German-speaking countries. After reading one randomly assigned description of a character that included the character's relationship status (single vs. with an uncommitted partner vs. with a committed partner), participants indicated how much they believed the character was satisfied with different aspects of life. Three informative hypotheses were compared using Bayesian ANCOVA. Results showed that participants rated characters with either an uncommitted or a committed partner to as having higher life satisfaction than single characters. Perceived life satisfaction was highest for characters with a committed partner. These judgements may reflect stereotypes and expectations that being single is inherently negative, which could ultimately contribute to discrimination or disadvantageous treatment of single people.
Related Concept Videos
Social Relationships and Well-Being
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
Factors Affecting Perception
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...
Relationship Formation
Dark Triad and Person Perception
Social Exchange Theory

