The Impact of Attachment on Instant Friendship Connections

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Friendship chemistry refers to a perceived instant and platonic connection that exists when meeting a person for the first time. The purpose of this research was to examine the influence of attachment style on friendship chemistry. We hypothesized that both attachment anxiety and avoidance would be negatively associated with instant friendship connections for men and women. Participants (n = 20 women; n = 18 men) were recruited from a Southern California university. They completed an online survey that included the Experiences in Close Relationship Scale-Short Form and demographic questions. They then attended a 2-hour speed-friending session in which they interacted with the same-sex others for 3-minutes each. The Social Relations Model was employed to disentangle perceiver and target variance. We found that among women, both high anxiety and avoidance negatively predicted feelings of instant connection from others whereas for men, neither attachment dimension predicted others’ perceived connections. For both genders, the attachment dimensions were not significant predictors of participants’ own ratings of friendship chemistry with others. Our findings are discussed in accordance with attachment theory and the empirical literature regarding gender differences in friendship.