Love Is Not Blind: It May Be Indifferent to Partners' Flaws, Unless It Involves Cheating or Aggression.

A popular saying asserts that love is blind and lovers view each other through rose-tinted glasses. We examined whether lovers recognize their partners' flaws and whether reflecting on these imperfections affects love intensity. We recruited 844 partnered individuals and randomly assigned them to a flaw recognition condition, where they described their partner's shortcomings, or to a passive control condition without such additional tasks. Frequentist comparisons revealed no significant group differences in experiences of intimacy, passion, and commitment, and Bayesian tests provided strong evidence supporting the null hypothesis. However, qualitative analyses showed that participants who reported severe transgressions, particularly infidelity or aggression, reported significantly lower love intensity. These results indicate that although lovers-even in early relationship stages often presumed to be wearing rose-tinted glasses-can typically acknowledge their partners' imperfections without their feelings weakening, love may be undermined once transgressions exceed a critical threshold. These findings can be interpreted within the love as a commitment device perspective, which posits that love serves to maintain bonds even when partners and relationships are imperfect and they also fit evolutionary accounts predicting that transgressions which threaten reproductive success (infidelity) or survival and bodily integrity (aggression) are particularly likely to erode romantic love.