Can serious about your ex ever have a optimistic impact? That’s what researchers on the University of Kansas wished to search out out. To check their query, they gathered individuals and received them to consider nostalgic recollections of their exes in three completely different research.

And primarily based on their outcomes, a bit of homesickness in your ex can truly enhance your present relationship. That’s proper — in all three research, the researchers discovered that serious about nostalgic recollections of ex-partners “increased perceptions of the quality of the current relationship,” in comparison with the management group.

Further, the research authors be aware, serious about previous relationships could even enhance your motivation to maintain your present romantic relationship alive and effectively.

And if that wasn’t sufficient, their ultimate discovering was that the individuals’ notion of their very own self-growth probably influenced how they felt after they considered an ex. In reality, when individuals mirrored on their previous relationships, they usually concurrently mirrored on how a lot they’d grown for the reason that relationship—which may clarify why they later seen their present relationship (and motivation for that relationship) in a greater gentle.