People are in one of two states in a relationship,” Gottman went on. “The first is what I call positive sentiment override, where positive emotion ov… - Malcolm Gladwell

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People are in one of two states in a relationship,” Gottman went on. “The first is what I call positive sentiment override, where positive emotion overrides irritability. It’s like a buffer. Their spouse will do something bad, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, he’s just in a crummy mood.’ Or they can be in negative sentiment override, so that even a relatively neutral thing that a partner says gets perceived as negative.