Anticipating responses to one's own misdeeds: Repressive coping and the prediction of others' reactions to inconsiderate behavior

Students predicted how their best friends or significant others would respond to various inconsiderate behaviors on their part, such as being late or failing to return a borrowed object. To judge the accuracy of these predictions, we asked the friends how they expected to respond to such behaviors. For each dyad we computed a discrepancy score between the students' predictions and their friends' responses. Repressors' predictions were less negative than their friends' responses, whereas nonrepressors' predictions were more negative. Furthermore, repressors' predictions, unlike those of nonrepressors, showed no correlation with their friends' responses. Failure to anticipate negative reactions to one's actions may bode poorly for one's interpersonal relationships.