Murray and his colleagues (2003) found that, among married couples, the self-fulfilling prophecy occurred when one person interpreted slight hurts as rejections. the person who felt rejected was then motivated to

The person who felt rejected was then motivated to devalue their partner and become distant from him/her.
Self-fulfilling prophecy is a psychological term describing a dynamic process in which an incorrect estimation of a situation makes a person behave in a particular way. In turn, this behaviour makes the original false estimation of the situation to come true. In this example, people that were falsely expecting to be rejected by their partners created an environment to trigger the rejection from their partners. In conclusion, the most immediate response to rejection and the feeling of hurt is to reject the partner in turn.