Northwestern University Newsfeed

August 21, 2006

FINKEL: Because the interaction took so much energy to get on the same page with the other person, subsequently you are exhausted and when you turn your attention to other tasks…be it cognitive tasks, physical tasks, any sort of other tasks, you actually find that you perform those tasks worse.

Finkel says those who had high maintenance interactions had difficulties functioning in a number of areas…

FINKEL: They were impaired in their ability to answer GRE questions. They were impaired in their willingness to do challenging tasks that might be rewarding rather than simple tasks that are unlikely to be rewarding. The other thing that is interesting is that we also measured their physical stamina and found that people who had the high maintenance interaction were significantly impaired.

Finkel says certain people may be so-called “emotional vampires” that are draining to everyone they come in contact with…

FINKEL: Is it possible to create clinical interventions for these people? Maybe these people are going through life exhausting people and subsequently they get rejected. Is it possible that they could have some sort of social skills training that could improve their ability to function well.

While clinical solutions don't yet exist, Finkel says there are some steps people can take to minimize the impact of high-maintenance interaction…

FINKEL: If you and your spouse or your coworker find yourself reliably in the position where you have to get coordinated and work through things every time, set up a system. Have one discussion once because it means you don't have to get into as much coordination discussion, and I suspect that is going to make life better for all parties.