When the ratio is five to one or better, any dissonance that arises is generally reduced in a positive direction. Social psychologist Ayala Pines, in a study of burnout in marriage, reported how a happily married woman she called Ellen reduced the dissonance caused by her husband’s failure to give her a birthday present. “I wish he would have given me something—anything—I told him that, like I am telling him all of my thoughts and feelings,” Ellen said to Pines. “And as I was doing that I was thinking to myself how wonderful it is that I can express openly all of my feelings, even the negative
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