Breaking up with someone is never easy, and while you may think it’s better to let someone down gently, a new study suggests the exact opposite may be true.
New research by Brigham Young University finds that it’s better to just be direct when dumping someone rather than beating around the bush. At most, they say if you want to soften the blow of an impending dumping, all you really need to say is “we need to talk” and nothing more. The study tried to determine what was the best way to deliver bad news to someone and found that people actually value directness rather than being forced to deal with an extended or overly polite lead up.
”An immediate 'I'm breaking up with you' might be too direct,” lead study author Alan Manning says. “But all you need is a 'we need to talk' buffer - just a couple of seconds for the other person to process that bad news is coming.”
And this goes for more than just relationship breakups. The study finds that when relaying “negative physical facts,” like say telling someone their house is on fire, or a doctor telling someone that they have cancer, people want the bad news deliverer to be straight up, with “no buffer required or desired.”
Source: The Daily Mail