Solomon’s paradox refers to people’s ability to give good advice to others and to be less lucid and rational when it comes to oneself. What comes into play is the psychological distance: it is easier to give good advice and see things more rationally when you do not experience the emotions that arouses that certain situation are not to be experienced, making the most suitable choice more difficult. It was so called because the king of Israel, famous for his wisdom, was very skilled in making decisions for others, but he was in difficulty when he had to choose how to deal with a question in which he was involved in first person. Some researchers from the University of Michigan and Waterloo (Canada) have studied this behavior relating to the couple’s relationship.
Solomon and the couple. They asked 50 people, engaged stablely in a relationship, to imagine having been betrayed by their partner, instead 50 people, who have also been linked for some time, had to imagine that their best friend was betrayed. All participants wondered if they had taken on the point of view of all the people involved in the conflict and how they imagined the future of the relationship. As expected, those who judged situations that did not concern him directly have obtained higher scores to the test. The results suggest that in order to face a conflict in an objective way it would be useful to try to see it from the outside
