Commitment: The Key to Women Staying in Abusive Relationships

Much of the previous research examining why some women choose to remain in abusive relationships suggests that women remain with an abusive spouse for a number of reasons, many of which place blame on themselves or their partner instead of the situation (Eckstein, 2011). While personal and contextual reasons for remaining in a relationship are important, we argue that factors such as the commitment process may be the most difficult to overcome once a woman makes the decision to leave the relationship. Cialdini’s (2009) influence principle of commitment and consistency suggests that once a decision is made, people will typically do whatever they can to remain consistent with that decision. In the case of women in abusive relationships, abuse may not begin until the relationship has lasted for years. Implications for commitment and consistency in abusive relationships will be discussed, as well as proposed mechanisms such as the Foot-in-theDoor effect and cognitive dissonance.