About the study

In a study published in Evolutionary Psychology, researchers from Greece, led by Menelaos Apostolou, a psychology professor at the University of Nicosia, sought to examine the most common strategies that people use to “improve their relationships with their partners”.

The researchers surveyed hundreds of Greek-speaking people to find out the most common tactics. Although they found 81 “acts that people were likely to perform toward this end”, they narrowed these common strategies down into 14 common “relationship enhancement strategies”.

These 14 common strategies were:

Try to understand her/his needs
Discuss our problems together
Show more interest in my partner
Create experiences together
Build trust
Show her/him my love
Give my partner more space
Open to her/his criticism
Exercise self-control
Look after myself
Be less withdrawn and grumpy
Make concessions and compromises
Self-improvement
Improve looks

Keeping the romance alive: a new study shows we all use similar tactics to improve our relationships