Couples Underestimate Positive Affective Reactions to Financial Conversations

Falling in love, moving in together, and raising a family are exciting milestones for couples; importantly, money is a critical component of all these experiences. While couples generally merge their financial lives as their relationship becomes more committed, partners often struggle with financial communication. Across three diary studies using a two-wave prospective–retrospective design, we examine how romantic partners perceive—and ultimately experience—financial conversations. We find that individuals systematically underestimate how enjoyable, informative, and socially connecting these conversations will be. This misprediction occurs because partners underestimate the extent to which they will reach an agreement. Extending research focused on forecasting errors in interactions between strangers or non-romantic partners, we show that individuals can mispredict conversational outcomes in highly intimate relationships. These findings have practical implications for both practitioners (e.g., financial advisors and marriage counselors) and couples seeking to better align their (financial) expectations with reality.