Willingness to Sacrifice

What Promotes Willingness to Sacrifice?

One key variable in promoting willingness to sacrifice is ones commitment to the relationship, which is defined in terms of the degree to which an individual experiences a long-term orientation toward a relationship, including the intent to persist, feelings of psychological attachment, and implicit recognition that one “needs” the relationship. Empirical evidence strongly indicates that commitment promotes willingness to sacrifice. The various components of commitment—satisfaction, investments, and quality of alternatives—predict willingness to sacrifice. That is, willingness to sacrifice is greater for people who are happier in their relationships (satisfaction), for people who have made greater investments to the relationships (material investments such as shared mortgage, furniture, and the like, or subjective investments, such as mutual friends, exchange of secrets, and so on), and for people who fear that they have not much to fall back on because they would not like to be single, or because their alternatives do not look good (perceived quality of alternatives). Commitment summarizes and explains the links between satisfaction, investment size, and perceived quality of alternatives on the one hand, and willingness to sacrifice on the other hand. So, what then might explain why commitment is such a powerful predictor of willingness to sacrifice?

First, committed individuals are dependent on their partner and literally need their relationships. The more they have to lose, the more they will be willing to give up to hold on to what they have. This explanation is consistent with the negative association between perceived quality of alternatives and willingness to sacrifice. Evidence does suggest that people who believe that they would “lose everything” if the relationship were to end are more likely to be helpful to the partner, often at significant cost to themselves.

Second, committed individuals are likely to adopt a communal orientation to respond to the partners needs in a rather unconditional manner without counting what they receive in return. Such communal orientation has often been linked with commitment. This makes sense: In a strongly committed relationship, it would be unusual if partners need to think carefully whether or not to do the partner a favor, and to bring to mind a record of exchanges. Such an exchange orientation might even be taxing because “counting” and “bookkeeping” may be disruptive for smooth and easy interactions.

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