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Description: Emotional Similarity (ES) is a key feature in close relationships. However, the exact role it plays is still not thoroughly understood. Specifically, day-level context-dependent effects of ES are unknown. We hypothesized that relational events (i.e., conflict and sexual activity) occurring while ES is high would have stronger effects. Two samples (N=44, N=80) of committed couples completed daily diaries for three and five weeks, respectively. Each evening, partners reported their currently-felt moods, relationship quality, and the occurrence of conflict and/or sex in the preceding 24 hours. ES was operationalized as the profile similarity between the partners’ moods on each day. Generally, ES moderated the associations between conflict or sex and relational outcomes: on days marked by greater ES, conflict and sex had stronger negative/positive outcomes, respectively. These findings highlight the importance of considering ES on a momentary basis and suggest that it may function as an amplifier of charged relational events.
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