Setting Appropriateness and Romantic Relationship Initiation Success.

Does the setting in which a relationship initiation attempt occurs matter to its success? Identical initiations could yield differential success if enacted in different settings. Data from five independent samples highlight the role settings play in the perception of (hypothetical) relationship initiation attempts and (expectations of) their success. Study 1a sourced a wide variety of settings for real-world relationship initiations. A separate sample rated the identified settings on initiation appropriateness (Study 1b). Study 2 tested the appropriateness and associated outcomes of initiation settings while varying aspects of the interpersonal context (initiator attractiveness, Study 2a; initiator familiarity, Study 2b; sexual nature of proposition, Study 2c). Irrespective of initiator attractiveness, familiarity, or type of proposal, perceptions of initiations' success were impacted by the settings' appropriateness. This work is the first to empirically test whether perceptions and outcomes of initiation attempts differ as a function of the setting in which they occur.

Life events sometimes alter the trajectory of personality development: Effect sizes for 25 life events estimated using a large, frequently assessed sample.

OBJECTIVE: Personality changes across the life span. Life events, such as marriage, becoming a parent, and retirement, have been proposed as facilitating personality growth via the adoption of novel social roles. However, empirical evidence linking life events with personality development is sparse. Most studies have relied on few assessments separated by long time intervals and have focused on a single life event. In contrast, the content of life is composed of small, recurrent experiences (e.g., getting sick or practicing a hobby), with relatively few major events (e.g., childbirth). Small, frequently experienced life events may play an important and overlooked role in personality development. METHOD: The present study examined the extent to which 25 major and minor life events alter the trajectory of personality development in a large, frequently assessed sample (Nsample = 4904, Nassessments = 47,814, median retest interval = 35 days). RESULTS: Using a flexible analytic strategy to accommodate the repeated occurrence of life events, we found that the trajectory of personality development shifted in response to a single occurrence of some major life events (e.g., divorce), and recurrent, "minor" life experiences (e.g., one's partner doing something special). CONCLUSION: Both stark role changes and frequently reinforced minor experiences can lead to personality change.

Testing the canalization hypothesis of attachment theory: Examining within-subject variation in attachment security.

According to the canalization hypothesis of attachment theory (Bowlby, 1973), people's trajectories of attachment security should become increasingly stable and buffered against external pressures as their relationships progress. The present study aimed to examine this hypothesis within the context of romantic relationships. We analyzed longitudinal data collected from 1,741 adults who completed between three and 24 survey assessments (average number of waves analyzed = 6.79, SD = 5.31; median test-retest interval = 35 days). We modeled participants' within-person fluctuations in partner-specific security as a function of their romantic relationship length. Additionally, we examined whether attachment-related events (e.g., conflict with one's partner) predict greater within-person fluctuations in security among people involved in newer versus more established romantic relationships. Our results suggest that people in newer romantic relationships demonstrated greater fluctuations in partner-specific attachment anxiety-both generally and in reaction to attachment-related events-compared to those in well-established romantic relationships. However, neither of these trends was observed for partner-specific attachment avoidance. These results provide partial support for the canalization hypothesis but also suggest that canalization processes may be more nuanced than previously assumed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Attachment style and attention bias to emotional information: The moderating effect of stress, stimulus characteristics, and attention stage.

OBJECTIVE: We examined whether insecurely attached individuals exhibit an attention bias to emotional information, and further tested the potential moderating role of stress, information valence, information attachment relevance, and attention stage. BACKGROUND: Attachment style can predict people's attention to emotional information. However, the empirical findings are inconsistent, making it difficult to determine the associations between attachment style and attention bias to emotional information. METHOD: We included 68 studies (N = 5417) across 46 published and unpublished articles (the initial pool was 627 articles) in the meta-analysis. RESULTS: People high on attachment avoidance exhibited decreased attention toward emotional stimuli (d = -0.129, p = 0.020), which was not affected by stress, information valence, information attachment relevance, or attention stage. Conversely, people high on attachment anxiety exhibited increased attention toward emotional stimuli, especially under stress, if the information was attachment-related, and during late-stage attentional processing. They exhibited an early bias away from and a late bias toward emotional information, which was intensified under stress. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the proposition that people high on attachment avoidance use deactivating strategies in attentional processing; whereas people high on attachment anxiety use hyperactivating strategies, especially when resources are limited (under stress). When resources are available, and it is relatively early in the process, people high on attachment anxiety respond similarly to those high on attachment avoidance.

Effects of attachment security priming on women's math performance.

Introduction: Activating people's sense of attachment security can buffer against psychological threats. Here we tested whether security priming can also buffer the adverse effects of stereotype threat among women. Method: Three studies (a pilot study (N = 79 women, 72 men), a laboratory study; N = 474 women, and an online study; N = 827 women) compared security priming to neutral and positive affect priming. Results: The pilot study revealed that women exposed to attachment security primes (e.g., the word "love") had better math performance than women exposed to neutral primes (e.g., "boat"). Men's math performance did not differ across priming conditions. Study 1 revealed that women showed better math performance in the attachment security priming condition than in the neutral or positive (e.g., "luck") priming conditions. The effect was observed among women high on math identification. In Study 2, despite an effect of security priming on the manipulation check [higher State Adult Attachment Measure (SAAM) security score], security did not buffer stereotype threat effects. Discussion: Our findings provide partial support to the idea that security priming (an interpersonal process) can buffer stereotype threat (an intergroup process). Theoretical and practical implications related to attachment security priming and stereotype threat are discussed.

How deep is AI's love? Understanding relational AI.

We suggest that as people move to construe robots as social agents, interact with them, and treat them as capable of social ties, they might develop (close) relationships with them. We then ask what kind of relationships can people form with bots, what functions can bots fulfill, and what are the societal and moral implications of such relationships.

Do masks affect social interaction?

Wearing face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has proved controversial in many countries; conducting new research on the use of masks would be colored by this controversy. In 2012 (pre-COVID), we conducted an experiment on the effects of masks on social interaction. College students (N = 250) were assigned to find a previously unknown student in a lecture hall, converse, and evaluate the interaction. Half were assigned to wear a surgical mask, sunglasses, and a hat (all provided); half wore no extra gear. Mask wearing had no effect on the ease, authenticity, friendliness of the conversation, mood, discomfort, or interestingness of the interaction. There were no discernable consequences of political ideology on the partner selection process or the evaluation of the interaction. Mask-wearing did not disable successful social interaction in this setting.

Increased Urination Urgency Exacerbates Sexual Risk-Taking Through Heightened Sexual Arousal.

Increased urination urgency has been shown to facilitate impulse control in cognitive domains, but its effects in other areas are unknown. We examined whether inhibitory spillover effects would replicate and extend to close relationships-specifically, influencing decision making related to sexual risk-taking. Across three studies, we either measured (Studies 1 and 3) or manipulated (Study 2) participants' bladder pressure and assessed sexual self-control using a questionnaire of sexual risk-taking intentions (Study 1) or a simulated semi-behavioral sexual risk-taking (Choose Your Own Sexual Adventure) task (Studies 2 and 3). Study 1 (N = 44 men, 59 women) showed greater urination urgency was associated with greater sexual risk-taking. Study 2 (N = 65 men, 91 women) showed that increasing urination urgency led to greater sexual risk-taking, but only among men. Study 3 (N = 86 men, 183 women) showed elevated urination urgency was associated with an increase in sexual arousal, which accounted for the greater sexual risk-taking.

Attachment Security Priming Affecting Mating Strategies Endorsement among College Students.

Exposure to environmental cues reflecting potential threats to future survivability is associated with a stronger endorsement of short-term mating strategies. Less is known, however, about the effects of safety and security cues. In four studies, we examined the effects of attachment-related security cues compared to neutral cues on preferences for short- and long-term mating strategies. Preferences were assessed using self-report and behavioral measures. In line with Life History Theory (LHT) and our hypotheses, exposure to attachment-related security cues was mainly associated with a stronger preference for long-term mating strategies and a weaker preference for short-term strategies. Our internal meta-analysis of the experimental security manipulations across studies provided further support for the association between state attachment security and endorsement of mating strategies. We also found some predictable effects of gender and relationship status. Implications for LHT and attachment theory are discussed. (139 words).

Attachment Security Priming: A Meta-Analysis.

Attachment security priming has important theoretical and practical implications. We review security priming theory and research and the recent concerns raised regarding priming. We then report the results of a meta-analysis of 120 studies (N = 18,949) across 97 published and unpublished articles (initial pool was 1,642 articles) investigating the affective, cognitive, and behavioral effects of security priming. A large overall positive effect size (d = .51, p < .001) was found across all affective, cognitive, and behavioral domains. The largest effect was found for affect-related outcomes (d =.62, p < .001), followed by behavioral (d = .44, p < .001), and cognitive (d = .45, p < .001). Trait attachment anxiety and avoidance moderated the effects of subliminal security priming for behavioral outcomes-security priming effects were larger among people higher on attachment anxiety and avoidance. Assessment of publication bias revealed mixed evidence for the possible presence of asymmetry.

Effects of cognitive load and type of object on the visual looming bias.

According to the behavioral urgency hypothesis, organisms have evolved various mechanisms that facilitate their survival by focusing attention and resources on approaching danger. One example of such mechanisms is the looming bias-the tendency for an individual to judge an approaching object's distance as being closer or time-to-collision as being sooner than receding or stationary objects. To date, most research on the looming bias has explored the ways in which human factors and object characteristics influence the strength and direction of the bias. The current study expanded on this field of research in two novels ways by exploring (a) whether cognitive vulnerabilities may influence the strength of the looming bias in the visual domain, and (b) whether the combination of human factors (i.e., cognitive load) and object characteristics (i.e., object threat) interact to create an additive effect on looming bias strength. Findings appear to only partially support the hypotheses that cognitive vulnerabilities can influence looming bias strength in the visual domain, and that factors related to both the individual and the looming object may interact to create a stronger looming bias. These findings help to highlight possible evolutionary advantages of the looming bias and its presence across modalities, as well as add some strength to the claims that the margin of safety theory can be generalized to include psychological factors.

Do life events lead to enduring changes in adult attachment styles? A naturalistic longitudinal investigation.

Research has shown that a variety of life events are associated with changes in adult attachment styles. What is unknown, however, is the extent to which those changes are transient or enduring. To investigate this issue, we followed a sample of over 4,000 people in a multiwave longitudinal study in which people naturalistically experienced a variety of life events (e.g., starting new relationships, changing jobs, average n across events = 392). This allowed us to examine people's attachment trajectories before (Mwaves = 6.51) and after (Mwaves = 8.04) specific life events took place, for spans of time ranging from 6 months to 40 (M = 23 months). We found that half of the life events we studied were associated with immediate changes in attachment styles. However, on average, people tended to revert back to levels of security similar to those that would be expected on the basis of their preevent trajectories. Nonetheless, the average person changed in enduring ways in response to a quarter of the events we studied, suggesting that some experiences lead to enduring changes in attachment. Moreover, there were considerable individual differences in the extent to which people changed: Even in cases in which the average person did not show enduring change, there was evidence that some people became more secure and others less so in enduring ways. The ways in which people construed the events (positive vs. negative) were related to the extent to which their attachment styles changed. We discuss the implications of these findings for theoretical models of attachment dynamics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Identifying a Facial Expression of Flirtation and Its Effect on Men.

Internal states may be conveyed to others nonverbally through facial expression. We investigated the existence of a particular facial cue that may be effectively used by women to indicate interest in a man. Across six studies, men generally recognized a female facial expression as representing flirting. Flirtatious expressions receiving low recognition by men differed in morphology from the highly recognized flirting expressions. The discrepancies are indicative of individual differences among women in effectively conveying a flirtatious facial cue and among men in recognizing this cue. The morphology of the highly recognized flirtatious facial expressions, coded using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), included: a head turned to one side and tilted down slightly, a slight smile, and eyes turned forward (toward the implied target). Results from experimental studies showed that flirtatious facial expressions, as compared with happy or neutral expressions, led to faster identification of sex words by men. These findings support the role of flirtatious expression in communication and mating initiation.

The Dual Function Model of Attachment Security Priming: Theoretical Framework and Empirical Evidence.

According to attachment theory, security providing attachment figures fulfill two main functions: (1) safe haven-providing safety and comfort and reducing stress-helping people regain a sense of security; and (2) secure base-providing resources and a base from which people can spring into action. According to the Dual Function of Security Priming Model, security priming can result in one of two outcomes paralleling these two functions. Which outcome is likely to present itself depends on the level of stress imposed by the context. Here we describe the Dual Function Model of Security Priming (DFSP) Model and provide evidence from a study examining the effects of attachment security priming on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity. In the study, participants were exposed to security-related cues under high or low/no-stress conditions, while their salivary cortisol concentrations were measured. Cortisol is a suitable index as it is released not only in response to stress, but also more generally when energy needs to be mobilized. We found that while security priming led to significant decreases in salivary cortisol concentrations when presented after a stressor (stress reduction), it led to a significant increase in salivary cortisol concentrations when presented before the stressor (energy mobilization).

How food brings us together: The ties between attachment and food behaviors.

Interpersonal food behaviors, such as food sharing and food offering, are associated with closeness between people and thought to facilitate the formation and strengthening of social bonds. Despite the importance of food and food-related behavior in general and for social bonding specifically, there is relatively little research about the psychological underpinnings of food-related behavior within relationship science. To fill this gap, we conducted three studies focusing on food behaviors and attachment style. In Study 1, we found attachment avoidance to be negatively associated with engagement in food sharing behaviors, and with a lower likelihood of dating a potential partner due to the partner's food preferences. In Study 2, we found that enhancing attachment security increased the tendency to offer one's food to a fellow participant. In Study 3, we found that the tendency to accept food from a fellow participant was positively associated with attachment anxiety, but security priming did not affect this tendency. Implications for attachment, close relationships, and food sciences are discussed.

Effects of self- and partner's online disclosure on relationship intimacy and satisfaction.

Most research on the effects of disclosure on close relationships have been done using offline disclosure. However, disclosure done online has disparate features and thus its effects on relationships may also differ. In five studies and using primes emulating Facebook timelines and messages, we compared the effects of disclosure depth on intimacy and satisfaction in online vs. offline contexts, in romantic vs. friend relationships, and with differing content (self- vs. partner-focused). After demonstrating consistent differences, we examined one mechanism that accounted for the differential effects of online vs. offline disclosure in romantic relationships: perceived inclusivity of the recipients. Results revealed that greater disclosure was associated with higher relational intimacy and satisfaction when done offline (Studies 1 and 4), and lower intimacy and satisfaction when done online (Studies 1-4), in both the discloser (Study 1) and his or her partner (Studies 2-4). The negative association between online disclosure and intimacy was present in romantic relationships, but not in friendships (Study 1). Importantly, this effect only appeared when perceived inclusivity of recipients was high (Study 4). Focusing the online disclosure content on the partner/relationship dissipated its negative effects (Study 5). Together, these studies extend further knowledge on how the effects of disclosure are contextualized, and suggest that disclosure done publicly online may be detrimental to romantic relationships.

Attachment security priming: a systematic review.

Attachment security priming has been used to shed light on the cognitive processes related to attachment internal working models as well as the cognitive substrates of people's attachment-related affect and behavior. Security primes activate a sense of attachment security by making mental representations in one's memory more accessible and salient. In the current paper, we report on a qualitative synthesis of 20 studies published in the last two years to determine the effects of security priming. We found that supraliminally administered security priming (especially via guided imagery or visualization) is associated with beneficial effects across a diverse set of domains. The effects were especially strong among anxiously attached individuals.

Attachment and social networks.

The current review covers two lines of research linking attachment and social networks. One focuses on attachment networks (the people who fulfill one's attachment needs), examining composition and age-related differences pertaining to these networks. The other line integrates attachment with social network analysis to investigate how individual differences in adult attachment are associated with the management and characteristics (e.g., density, multiplexity, and centrality) of people's social networks. We show that most people's attachment networks are small and hierarchical, with one figure being the primary attachment figure (often a mother or romantic partner, depending on age). Furthermore, attachment style predicts network characteristics and management, such that insecurity is associated with less closeness, multiplexity, centrality, and poorer management (less maintenance, more dissolution).

A Net of Friends: Investigating Friendship by Integrating Attachment Theory and Social Network Analysis.

The current article focuses on attachment style-an individual difference widely studied in the field of close relationships-and its application to the study of social networks. Specifically, we investigated whether attachment style predicts perception and management of social networks. In Study 1, we examined the associations of attachment style with perceptions of network tie strength and multiplexity. In Studies 2a and 2b, we investigated the association between attachment style and network management skills (initiating, maintaining, and dissolving ties) and whether network management skills mediated the associations of attachment style with network tie strength and multiplexity. In Study 3, experimentally enhancing attachment security made people more likely to initiate and less likely to dissolve social ties (for the latter, especially among those high on avoidance or anxiety). As for maintenance, security priming also increased maintenance; however, mainly among people high on attachment anxiety or low on attachment avoidance.