Spot-On or Stereotypical? A Social Relations Model of Life Satisfaction and Relationship Status Satisfaction Ratings Among Friends

Abstract

We examined how people assessed their friends’ life satisfaction and relationship status satisfaction among 197 groups of four friends (N = 788), using Social Relations Models. We found that variance in life satisfaction judgments was explained about equally by perceivers (23%) and targets (24%). However, variance in status satisfaction judgments was largely explained by targets (53%) rather than perceivers (9%). In other words, people tend to agree on which friends are satisfied, particularly with their status. Self-other agreement was higher for status satisfaction (r = .53) than life satisfaction (r = .39). The association between target relationship status and target effects of status satisfaction (r = .69) was stronger than the association between target relationship status and target effects of life satisfaction (r = .17), suggesting friends use relationship status as a cue when assessing status satisfaction. Results have implications for interpersonal perception, how relationship status impacts perception, and how life satisfaction relates to domain-specific satisfaction.