A signal detection analysis of chronic attachment anxiety at speed dating: being unpopular is only the first part of the problem.
Initiating a romantic relationship invokes an approach-avoidance conflict between the desire for affiliation and the fear of rejection; optimally, people should selectively approach potential partners who reciprocate their interest. This may be difficult for anxiously attached people: They may be unpopular, and their ambivalence could lead to either a fearfully selective approach at the cost of missed opportunities or an unselective, indiscriminate approach at the cost of increasing rejection. Using a speed-dating paradigm, data were collected from 116 participants, and a signal detection framework was applied to examine the outcomes. For anxious participants, speed-dating attendance was motivated by loneliness. At speed dating, they were unpopular and unselective; they missed fewer opportunities but made more failed attempts. Anxious men made fewer matches than nonanxious men, whereas anxious women were buffered by having a response bias toward saying "yes" to potential partners. Attachment anxiety predicted outcomes above and beyond the powerful impact of attractiveness.
McClure
M Joy
MJ
Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. jmcclure@ego.psych.mcgill.ca
Lydon
John E
JE
Baccus
Jodene R
JR
Baldwin
Mark W
MW
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003380:Courtship / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008132:Loneliness / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009769:Object Attachment; D012059:Rejection, Psychology; D017678:Sex Distribution; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D012928:Social Desirability; D055815:Young Adult