Note from Katie: I realized after recording that I should have used the term “romantic partner selection” instead of “mate selection.” So sorry about that! Please mentally edit me throughout while listening to put my mind at ease – thank you!

In honor of Valentine’s Day, this episode is all about relationships, couples therapy, and romance in The Office with special guest, Dr. Leonardo Bobadilla! First, we talked about the factors that influence initiation of romantic relationships and whether assortative mating is real. Next, we chatted about unhealthy and healthy components of relationships. With tons of references to your favorite Office characters, we described some of the main components of couples therapy and how those skills seemed to help Pam and Jim in Season 9. This may be laughy-est episode we’ve ever done! We hope you enjoy it!

If you want to skip ahead to certain sections, here’s a guide (analyses of characters from The Office are part of every section):

• 10:01 – Romantic Partner Selection & Assortative Mating
• 45:12  – Healthy vs. Unhealthy Relationships & Longevity
• 1:08:00 – Couples Therapy Components (Communication Skills)

If you like our podcast, please rate and review us on iTunes, check out our counsel.com/">website, and follow us on Twitter. Thank you so much!

For More Information:

• Check out Katie’s cousin’s music on SoundCloud – it’s really, really good and under the name Couples Therapy!

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• Dr. Leonardo Bobadilla’s faculty webpage, blog, & SoundClown page
• Couples Therapy Information
• Dr. Samantha Joel’s Relationship Decisions Lab website
  • studies about initial attraction in speed-dating
  • study on gratitude, commitment, and investment in relationships
  • 2017-consistency-and-inconsistency-in-romantic-partners.pdf">study on similarities and differences among romantic partners over 2017-consistency-and-inconsistency-in-romantic-partners.pdf">time