| Recent work in the area of risk and evaluations of transgressions and ambiguous events determined that relationship length appeared to moderate people's judgments of these incidents (Nairn and Boon, 2003). Essentially, this study demonstrated that when short-term daters (i.e., relationships of 4 to 24 months) were exposed to the risks inherent in romantic relationships, they evaluated a subsequent relational event significantly more negatively than short-term control participants. Conversely, those in longer-term dating relationships (i.e., 24 months or more) reported less negative evaluations of the event when they were exposed to risk. The current studies were designed to test a New Model of Cautious Processing based on the original by (Boon and Holmes, 1999) in which trust was considered to be a potential candidate for explaining the disordinal interactions found by Nairn and Boon. The results of Study One appear to replicate the Nairn and Boon interactions by replacing relationship length with trust, thereby supporting the New Model of Cautious Processing. An interpretation of the results of Study Two in which participants' implicit evaluations were examined remains unclear. |
