In long-distance relationships, partners who are viewed as humble tended to recover more quickly after offenses than their less humble counterparts, according to research.

Researchers respondents to look over a fake dating profiles and rate them on a seven point scale on likability, friendliness, number of friends, fun, attraction, likelihood of going on a date and potential satisfaction with dating. In one study, respondents were asked to think about the prompt and define if they thought the author showed humility. In a second study, researchers wrote dating profiles that were more humble and less humble.

“What we found is respondents rated the very humble dating partner significantly more favorably than the less humble dating partner,” said expert Daryl Van Tongeren. “We like being around humble people and, in a relationship setting, having a partner who is interested in further strengthening social bonds is consistently rated as important.”

A third study was developed to test the idea that humility may be important for maintaining and repairing relations. A total of 416 undergraduate students in both proximal relationships and long-distance relationships were asked a series of questions about forgiveness. Results show that unforgiveness after an offense is greater in long-distance relationships than it is in proximal relationships. However, the unforgiveness can be tempered a bit depending on the humility of the individual.