Which Way Does Cupid’s Arrow Go? Distinguishing Happiness and Meaningfulness Within Romantic Relationships

Happiness and meaningfulness are viewed as distinct aspects of psychological wellbeing, but their role in romantic relationships remains unknown. In two online studies, we sought to identify key differences between people’s judgments of relationship happiness and meaningfulness. Study 1 ( n = 426) found that greater sexual desire and satisfaction, and fewer relationship sacrifices and less stress, contributed to relationship happiness but were unconnected to relationship meaningfulness. By contrast, greater negative self-disclosure to one’s partner predicted relationship meaningfulness but was unlinked to relationship happiness. Study 2 ( n = 711) successfully replicated these findings, and further showed that people who prefer a meaningful relationship (over a happy one) exhibit a more favorable psychosocial profile, including greater relationship satisfaction, optimism, interpersonal closeness, forgiveness, and less relationship stress. These studies are the first to show that a distinct profile of psychosocial correlates distinguishes happy from meaningful romantic relationships, and they highlight the need for future research to consider hedonic and eudaimonic elements in relationship processes separately.