Interpersonal trust and self-perception of heterosexual charm moderate potential for betraying one's romantic partner

We examined whether or not interpersonal trust and self-perception of one’s heterosexual charm moderated the potential to betray one’s romantic partner. To enable free expression, we asked college students (N = 271) to imagine the possibility of a relationship breakup occurring between couples described in 4 vignettes. The results showed that the men believed that couples were more likely to break up when the woman in the partnership experienced a dramatic change for the worse in her physical appearance, but the women thought that couples were more likely to break up when the man in the partnership experienced a dramatic worsening of his economic status. Interpersonal trust and self-perception of heterosexual charm more strongly affected the perception of the male participants that a couple would break up when there was a change for the worse in the physical appearance of the woman partner, and these 2 factors also strongly affected the perception of the female participants that a couple would break up when there was a dramatic worsening of the economic status of the man in the partnership.