It was predicted that attachment is associated with exploration in adults. An exploration scale that measures willingness to explore the physical, social, and intellectual environments was constructed. Study 1 measured chronic attachment patterns and found that both anxiety and avoidance correlated negatively with the desire to explore. Study 2 primed attachment styles by exposing participants to attachment-related sentences in an ostensible sentence memorization task. Participants primed with a secure style were more open to exploration than were participants primed with the insecure styles. Together, the results of Study 1 and Study 2 provide converging evidence that the behavior systems of attachment and exploration are linked in adults.
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