ON THE PECULIARITIES OF LOYALTY - A DIARY STUDY OF RESPONSES TO DISSATISFACTION IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Research on exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect suggests an enigma: Wher eas responding to dissatisfying incidents with exit or neglect is gene rally harmful-and whereas voice is generally beneficial-loyalty does n ot reliably yield favorable consequences. A diary study of dating part ners' responses to dissatisfying incidents revealed results consistent with two explanations of the unreliable payoffs of loyalty. First, lo yalty is less ''visible'' than the other responses: Partners exhibited less agreement about the occurrence of loyalty than other responses; individuals reported greater frequencies of loyalty for themselves tha n for their partners; and there were greater discrepancies between per ceived frequencies of voice relative to loyalty for partner than for s elf. Thus, when an individual behaves loyally, this response frequentl y remains unnoticed (or is misinterpreted). Second, because acts of lo yalty operate in an indirect manner, they frequently produce less extr eme outcomes: Allthough loyalty responses were judged to yield more co nstructive consequences than exit and neglect, loyalty was judged less constructive than voice.