Couples researchers have spent 50 years filming conflicts, coding every word, and measuring what helps partners move attack-defend cycles to calm collaboration. Across this literature one result is striking: a small set of well-timed, well-phrased sentences can flip an argument’s trajectory within seconds. This report distils those findings into rigorously documented phrase-sets, explains the science behind each, and indicates when and why they work.

How Researchers Study “Magic Sentences”

Conflict-communication studies rely on three core methods.