Lethal Communication Relational Killers: The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse

 

I’ve had a blast over the past few weeks teaching students at various universities communication behaviors that predict the demise of relationships. The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, a metaphor used to describe counterproductive behaviors that are so lethal, predict relational failure within the first three minutes of an interaction with over an 90% accuracy rate.

Communication becomes habitual in relationships, and destructive ones, like the horsemen, are dangerous relationship killers.The most dangerous horseman is contempt, which erodes your partner’s immune system making them more like to suffer from infectious diseases!

Fortunately, each horseman has a proven positive behavior that will counteract negativity! Here’s a helpful chart to change dysfunctional behaviors to more productive ones.

-Dr. Samantha J. Shebib (February 27, 2021)