This Is Why You Should Always Say ‘Thank You’ To Compliments

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Sometimes it’s the little things that can make a relationship last a lifetime, like telling your partner just how awesome they are. Soul Pancake’s recent webisode of “The Science of Love” explores the power of compliments in relationships. What the site discovered is that compliments — even simple ones — improved the self-esteem of partners by upwards of 34 percent. Now, you might be thinking, “Duh, who doesn’t love compliments?” But the truth is, as Soul Pancake host Julian points out, a lot of us have trouble accepting them. So as part of the experiment, Julian told participants they could only respond “thank you” to their partner’s kind words and nothing else.

Then, in the second phase of the experiment, Julian asked participants to listen to each of the compliments again and explain how the compliment made them feel. By forcing participants to truly accept and absorb the kind remarks, it not only improved their own self-esteem, it also made those giving the compliments feel as though their feelings were validated.

“Accepting compliments doesn’t mean you’re arrogant or conceited. It’s healthy for both you and your relationship,” Julian says. Check out the video above to watch more of the experiment, then get off the computer and say something nice to your loved one!