Research Interests
My research generally examines motivated cognition in close relationships. I am broadly interested in how the fundamental goals to feel safe from harm and to perceive meaning and value in one’s actions shape how people feel and think about their romantic partners, their families, and the broader collective relational world.
Positive Illusions and Risk Regulation Research
To truly feel connected, people need to believe that they are in the right relationship with the right person. My research on relationship-enhancement processes suggests that overstating a partner’s virtues or compartmentalizing a partner’s faults affords a sense of certainty in one’s commitment. However, such relationship-enhancement processes potentially exacerbate the pain of rejection because losing a valued partner hurts more than losing a less valued one. Consequently, people typically only allow themselves to idealize and value their partner when they are confident that partner’s love and commitment is already secure. In regulating risk in this way, people satisfy the goal to be safe, but potentially, needlessly compromise closeness.
Representative Publications
Murray, S. L., Griffin, D. W., Derrick, J., Harris, B., Aloni, M., & Leder, S. (2011). Tempting fate or inviting happiness: Unrealistic idealization prevents the decline of marital satisfaction in newlyweds. Psychological Science, 22, 619-626. (PDF)
Murray, S. L., Holmes, J. G., & Collins, N. L. (2006). Optimizing assurance: The risk regulation system in relationships. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 641-666. (PDF)
Murray, S. L., Holmes, J. G., & Griffin, D. W. (1996). The self-fulfilling nature of positive illusions in romantic relationships: Love is not blind, but prescient. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1155-1180. (PDF)
Automaticity in Relationships
Much of relationship life may take place outside of conscious awareness. My research on automatic partner attitudes is based on the idea that more positive automatic partner attitudes function as an implicit signal that it is safe to trust the partner, allowing people who are normally sensitive to rejection to ignore conscious doubts and risk connection. My research on automatic commitment intentions suggests that periods of relationship uncertainty unconsciously motivate people to think and behave in ways that sustain commitment to their partner over time.
Representative Publications
Murray, S. L., Seery, M.D., Lamarche, V., Gomillion, S., & Kondrak, C. (2019). Implicitly imprinting the past on the present: Automatic partner attitudes and the transition to parenthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 116, 69-100. (PDF)
Murray, S. L., Gomillion, S., Holmes, J. G., & Harris, B. L. (2015). Inhibiting self-protection in romantic relationships: Automatic partner attitudes as a resource for low self-esteem people. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6, 173-182. (PDF)
Murray, S. L., Holmes, J., G., Griffin, D. W., & Derrick, J. L. (2015). The equilibrium model of relationship maintenance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108, 93-113. (PDF)
Murray, S. L., & Holmes, J. G. (2009). The architecture of interdependent minds: A motivation-management theory of mutual responsiveness. Psychological Review, 116, 908-928. (PDF)
Beyond Dyadic Interdependence
My ongoing research examines the central role that close relationships play in shaping how people manage the risks of social connection, including the risks of being rejected by others, having one’s conception of reality challenged by others, and being physically infected by others. This research suggests that risks in one part of relationship life can change the perception of risk in another part of relationship life and that people flexibility shift between different relational bases for safety, trusting in family members when government leaders behave unexpectedly, and trusting in government leaders when family members behave unexpectedly.
Representative Publications
Murray, S. L., Xia, J., Lamarche, V. L., Seery, M. D., McNulty, J., Ward, D., Griffin, D. W., & Hicks, L. (in press). Sensitizing the behavioral-immune system: The power of social pain. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Murray, S. L., Seery, M. D., Lamarche, V., Jung, H. Y., Saltsman, T. L., Griffin, D. W., Dubois, D., Xia, J., Ward, D. E., & McNulty, J. (2021). Looking for safety in all the right places: When threatening political reality strengthens family relationship bonds. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12, 1193-1202. (PDF)
Murray, S. L., Lamarche, V., Seery, M.D., Jung, H. Y., Griffin, D. W., & Brinkman, C. (2021). The social-safety system: Fortifying relationships in the face of the unforeseeable. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120, 99-130. (PDF)
Murray, S. L., Lamarche, V., Gomillion, S., Seery, M. D., & Kondrak, C. (2017). In defense of commitment: The curative power of violated expectations in relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113, 697-729. (PDF)
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