"It was amazing." "It was fine."
What our different emotional dials mean for love, friendship and work.
This will be familiar to all of us:
We exclaim over a delicious meal, rave about a new movie. “Incredible!” we say to our person, who merely shrugs: “It was OK.”
Have you ever felt deflated because someone didn’t share your enthusiasm?
Or pressured to amplify your reaction, to match someone else’s intensity?
These moments, which often happen in passing — so quickly that we barely notice them — have consequences for our marriages, friendships, and workplaces. Sometimes they’re just a matter of taste: you really loved the movie, and I thought it was meh.
But here’s what else may be going on - and what to do about it.