First thing that comes to my head when reading this title is: NO! Why on earth would having a wandering eye be at all good for a relationship? I have many friends in serious relationships. Time after time I remember I can’t go talking about a guy saying “He’s cute right?” or to my guy friends, “good god she’s beautiful” But here and there my taken friends will respond, “yeah girl, go get him or I will!” or “yeah she’s smoken hot” Sometimes their wandering eyes make me feel some type of way. And ladies, some are guilty of this or know someone that does this also. And guys, don’t think your getting off so easily. You do this too. My friends have been dating their loves for 3 or 5 years now. I’m just sitting here thinking, “I know that they love them, but is it a good for a relationship to have a wandering eye?” I only want the best for my friends so I did a bit of research before I expressed my opinion to them.
I found out that having a wandering eye does not harm a relationship, it could actually strengthen it. A study suggested that the partner wandering eye is better off to be enjoyed. Yes, research does mention that ones that do not glance at attractive strangers tend to be more satisfied with their own relationship. They are also most likely to stay with partners long term. So an experiment was conducted with 42 undergraduate students (19 years old) and 25 which were women and rest were male. The study had them sit in front of a computer with quick-flashing images of face pairs with one attractive while the other was average.
After the photo flashed on screen, one face appeared with a target letter (E or F), which the participant was told to press on the keyboard as accurately and quickly as possible. The program was purposefully rigged to restrict some students’ attention from the more attractive faces, by having the target letter appear in the place of the average-looking face 80% of the time. Next they had the students fill out a question sheet about their relationship commitment and satisfaction. Afterwards, they study showed that 42% dating relationships restricted attention computer were more engaged by attractive face compared with average faces.
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published their new study which tests “forbidden fruit” hypothesis in series of experiments on college students who were in romantic relationships. It stated that if blindness did not come naturally not to worry. But if a partner is forced to shift attention from an attractive person, it can result in an effect called “backlash”. This in return may reduce his level of relationship commitment. Which does make sense overall. Honestly, you are way better off letting your partner have wandering eye than to risk anything long term if you are committed to that one person. Researchers put this scenario in a perfect example as to why this all makes so much sense. They stated:
“Just as people want jobs they cannot have, salaries they cannot earn, and cars they cannot afford, people may desire attractive alternatives more and desire their current relationship partner less when they are placed in situations that limit their ability to attend to attractive alternatives.
Honestly, after finding this information on “wandering eye” it doesn’t seem so bad after all what my friends are doing. I want them to be happy with their relationship partners. I feel like they can make it work and I want it to. I will definitely share this information with them later when I meet up with them. I hope everyone learned something new! If you want a more in depth explanation on the experiments conducted, this article will help you as it did for me. And other information on wandering eye can be found here also.
