Liking different brands can make partners unhappy: Study

Washington: It may not seem like a big deal whether your partner prefers Coke or Pepsi, but scientists suggest that liking different brands can affect our happiness in relationships more than shared interests or personality traits.

"People think compatibility in relationships comes from having similar backgrounds, religion or education," said Gavan Fitzsimons, a professor at Duke University in the US.

"But we find those things don't explain how happy you are in life nearly as much as this notion of brand compatibility," said Fitzsimons.

The researchers found that partners who had low power in their relationships - those who do not feel they can shape their partner's behaviour - tend to find themselves stuck with their partner's preferred brands.

"If you are lower in relationship power and have different brand preferences than your partner, you're probably going to find yourself stuck with your partner's favourite brands, over and over again. This could lead to a death-by-a- thousand-cuts feeling," said Danielle Brick, now at the University of New Hampshire.

"Most couples won't break up over brand incompatibility, but it leads to the low power partner becoming less and less happy," said Brick. Studies in several settings produced the same result.