A couples psychologist recently told us about how the best relationships are those where both people feel like they're part of a team — that they're partners in the truest sense.
And as any business management guru will tell you, the best partnerships are those where people can exchange information clearly and directly.
So it's no surprise that one behavior that involves not sharing information is a burden on relationships: passive aggression, where you show hostility without directly saying what's bothering you.
The latest data came out in a study of 135 newlywed couples lead by Florida State University professor James McNulty and published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
As detailed by Melissa Dahl at Science of Us — where we first spotted the study — the study found that couples who talk about problems directly are happier than those that don't.
Even if direct discussions involve some degree of anger, they still let the other person know what's bothering you.
Passive-aggressiveness doesn't.
"That is why [passive aggression] is problematic,"McNulty tells NPR. "It conveys discontent without providing the partner with clear information about how to address the underlying issue," he says.
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