In two studies, we examined the effects of a control threat and attachment orientation on people’s preferences for market relationships. In Study 1, experiencing a control threat increased the willingness to seek practical support in the market rather than ask a close person for help among participants with higher attachment anxiety. In a well-powered preregistered Study 2, we replicated these results and demonstrated that they also hold for situations in which emotional support is desired. In addition, we demonstrated that the effect of a control threat on the preference for market-based support is moderated by attachment orientations above the effect of objective and subjective socioeconomic status. The effects we found suggest that people’s involvement in market relationships may fulfill important psychological needs, serving as a buffer against attachment insecurities.
AdlerN. E.EpelE. S.CastellazzoG.IckovicsJ. R. (2000). Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: Preliminary data in healthy, white women. Health Psychology: Official Journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 19(6), 586–592. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.19.6.586
AinsworthM. D. S. (Ed.), (2014). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Psychology Press.
4.
BianchiE. C.VohsK. D. (2016). Social class and social worlds: Income predicts the frequency and nature of social contact. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(5), 479–486. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550616641472
5.
CampbellL.MarshallT. (2011). Anxious attachment and relationship processes: An interactionist perspective. Journal of Personality, 79(6), 1219–1250. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2011.00723.x
6.
CeglianC. P.GardnerS. (1999). Attachment style: A risk for multiple marriages?Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 31(1–2), 125–139. https://doi.org/10.1300/J087v31n01_07
7.
ClarkM. S.AragónO. R. (2013). Communal (and other) relationships: History, theory development, recent findings, and future directions. In SimpsonJ. A.CampbellL. (Eds.), The oxford handbook of close relationships (pp. 255–280). Oxford University Press.
8.
ClarkM. S.LemayE. P. J.GrahamS. M.PatakiS. P.FinkelE. J. (2010). Ways of giving benefits in marriage: Norm use, relationship satisfaction, and attachment-related variability. Psychological Science, 21(7), 944–951. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610373882
9.
ClarkM. S.MilsJ. (1993). The difference between communal and exchange relationships: What it is and is not. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19(6), 684–691. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167293196003
10.
FaulF.ErdfelderE.LangA.-G.BuchnerA. (2007). G*power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39(2), 175–191. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193146
11.
FiskeA. P. (1992). The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations. Psychological Review, 99(4), 689–723. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.99.4.689
12.
FiskeA. P.HaslamN. (2005). The four basic social bonds. In BaldwinM. W. (Ed.), Interpersonal cognition (pp. 267–298). Guilford Press.
13.
FraleyR. C.WallerN. G.BrennanK. A. (2000). An item response theory analysis of self-report measures of adult attachment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(2), 350–365. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.78.2.350
14.
FriesenJ. P.KayA. C.EibachR. P.GalinskyA. D. (2014). Seeking structure in social organization: Compensatory control and the psychological advantages of hierarchy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(4), 590–609. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035620
GasiorowskaA.ChaplinL. N.ZaleskiewiczT.WygrabS.VohsK. D. (2016). Money cues increase agency and decrease prosociality among children: Early signs of market-mode behaviors. Psychological Science, 27(3), 331–344. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615620378
17.
GasiorowskaA.FolwarcznyM.OtterbringT. (2022). Anxious and status signaling: Examining the link between attachment style and status consumption and the mediating role of materialistic values. Personality and Individual Differences, 190, 111503. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.111503
18.
GasiorowskaA.ZaleskiewiczT. (2021). Trading in search of structure: Market relationships as a compensatory control tool. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(2), 300–334. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000246
19.
GasiorowskaA.ZaleskiewiczT. (2022). Can we get social assistance without losing agency? Engaging in market relationships as an alternative to searching for help from others. Psychological Inquiry, 33(1), 38–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2022.2037998
20.
GirmeY. U.OverallN. C.SimpsonJ. A.FletcherG. J. O. (2015). All or nothing”: Attachment avoidance and the curvilinear effects of partner support. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(3), 450–475. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038866
21.
GollwitzerA.ClarkM. S. (2019). Anxious attachment as an antecedent of people’s aversion towards pattern deviancy. European Journal of Social Psychology, 49(6), 1206–1222. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2565
22.
GoodeC.KeeferL. A.MolinaL. E. (2014). A compensatory control account of meritocracy. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 2(1), 313–334. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v2i1.372
23.
HalawaM.Olcoń-KubickaM. (2018). Digital householding: Calculating and moralizing domestic life through homemade spreadsheets. Journal of Cultural Economy, 11(6), 514–534. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2018.1486728
24.
HärkönenJ. (2014). Divorce: Trends, patterns, causes, and consequences. In TreasJ.ScottJ.RichardsM. (Eds.), The wiley-blackwell companion to the sociology of families (pp. 303–322). Wiley.
25.
HazanC.ShaverP.AinsworthM.BowlbyJ.GollobH.LeeK.-P.KobakR.PeplauA.ReisH.SchwartzJ.SkolnickA.-L.SternbergR. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 511–524. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.52.3.511
26.
HazanC.ShaverP. R. (1994). Attachment as an organizational framework for research on close relationships. Psychological Inquiry, 5(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli0501_1
27.
Holt-LunstadJ.SmithT. B.LaytonJ. B. (2010). Social relationships and mortality risk: A meta-analytic review. PLoS Medicine, 7(7), e1000316. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316
28.
JostJ. T.BlountS.PfefferJ.HunyadyG. (2003). Fair market ideology: Its cognitive-motivational underpinnings. Research in Organizational Behavior, 25, 53–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-3085(03)25002-4
KasserT. (2011). Materialistic value orientation. In BouckaertL.ZsolnaiL. (Eds.), Handbook of spirituality and business (pp. 204–211). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230321458_25
31.
KayA. C.EibachR. P. (2013). Compensatory control and its implications for ideological extremism: Compensatory control. Journal of Social Issues, 69(3), 564–585. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12029
32.
KayA. C.GaucherD.NapierJ. L.CallanM. J.LaurinK. (2008). God and the government: Testing a compensatory control mechanism for the support of external systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(1), 18–35. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.18
33.
KayA. C.WhitsonJ. A.GaucherD.GalinskyA. D. (2009). Compensatory control: Achieving order through the mind, our institutions, and the heavens. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(5), 264–268. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01649.x
34.
KogutT.KogutE. (2011). Possession attachment: Individual differences in the endowment effect. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 24(4), 377–393. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.698
35.
KonrathS. H.ChopikW. J.HsingC. K.O’BrienE. (2014). Changes in adult attachment styles in American college students over time: A meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review: An Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc, 18(4), 326–348. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868314530516
36.
LaurinK.KayA. C.MoscovitchD. A. (2008). On the belief in God: Towards an understanding of the emotional substrates of compensatory control. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(6), 1559–1562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.07.007
37.
LeoneL.GiacomantonioM.WilliamsR.MichettiD. (2018). Avoidant attachment style and conspiracy ideation. Personality and Individual Differences, 134, 329–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.06.043
38.
LubiewskaK.GłogowskaK.MickiewiczK.WojtynkiewiczE.IzdebskiP.WiśniewskiC. (2016). Skala experience in close relationships—revised: Struktura, rzetelność oraz skrócona wersja skali w polskiej próbie. Psychologia Rozwojowa, 21(1), 49–63. https://doi.org/10.4467/20843879PR.16.004.4793
39.
McGrawA. P.TetlockP. E. (2005). Taboo trade-offs, relational framing, and the acceptability of exchanges. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15(1), 2–15. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327663jcp1501_2
40.
MikulincerM.GillathO.HalevyV.AvihouN.AvidanS.EshkoliN. (2001). Attachment theory and reactions to others’ needs: Evidence that activiation of the sense of attachment security promotes empathic responses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1205–1224. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1205
41.
MikulincerM.NachshonO. (1991). Attachment styles and patterns of self-disclosure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(2), 321–331. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.61.2.321
42.
MikulincerM.ShaverP. R. (2003). The attachment behavioral system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, (35, pp. 53–152). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(03)01002-5
43.
MikulincerM.ShaverP. R. (2017). Attachment in adulthood: Structure, dynamics, and change (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
44.
MilyavskyM.KruglanskiA. W.GelfandM.ChernikovaM.EllenbergM.PierroA. (2022). People who need people (and some who think they don’t): On compensatory personal and social means of goal pursuit. Psychological Inquiry, 33(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2022.2037986
45.
MurrayS. L.HolmesJ. G.CollinsN. L. (2006). Optimizing assurance: The risk regulation system in relationships. Psychological Bulletin, 132(5), 641–666. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.5.641
46.
NorrisJ. I.LambertN. M.Nathan DeWallC.FinchamF. D. (2012). Can’t buy me love? Anxious attachment and materialistic values. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(5), 666–669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.05.009
47.
PalanS.SchitterC. (2018). Prolific.ac—a subject pool for online experiments. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 17, 22–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbef.2017.12.004
48.
PierceT.LydonJ. (1998). Priming relational schemas: Effects of contextually activated and chronically accessible interpersonal expectations on responses to a stressful event. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(6), 1441–1448. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.6.1441
49.
QuoidbachJ.TaquetM.DesseillesM.de MontjoyeY.-A.GrossJ. J. (2019). Happiness and social behavior. Psychological Science, 30(8), 1111–1122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619849666
50.
RaiT. S.FiskeA. P. (2011). Moral psychology is relationship regulation: Moral motives for unity, hierarchy, equality, and proportionality. Psychological Review, 118(1), 57–75. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021867
51.
RodriguezL. M.DiBelloA. M.ØverupC. S.NeighborsC. (2015). The price of distrust: Trust, anxious attachment, jealousy, and partner abuse. Partner Abuse, 6(3), 298–319. https://doi.org/10.1891/1946-6560.6.3.298
ShepherdS.KayA. C.LandauM. J.KeeferL. A. (2011). Evidence for the specificity of control motivations in worldview defense: Distinguishing compensatory control from uncertainty management and terror management processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(5), 949–958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.03.026
54.
SullivanD.LandauM. J.RothschildZ. K. (2010). An existential function of enemyship: Evidence that people attribute influence to personal and political enemies to compensate for threats to control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(3), 434–449. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017457
55.
SunY.WangL.JiangJ.WangR. (2020). Your love makes me feel more secure: Boosting attachment security decreases materialistic values. International Journal of Psychology: Journal International de Psychologie, 55(1), 33–41. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12544
56.
ThomsenL.SidaniusJ.FiskeA. P. (2007). Interpersonal leveling, independence, and self-enhancement: A comparison between Denmark and the US, and a relational practice framework for cultural psychology. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37(3), 445–469. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.366
57.
Van IJzendoornM. H.Bakermans-KranenburgM. J. (2010). Invariance of adult attachment across gender, age, culture, and socioeconomic status?Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27(2), 200–208. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407509360908
58.
VicaryA. M.FraleyR. C. (2007). Choose your own adventure: Attachment dynamics in a simulated relationship. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(9), 1279–1291. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167207303013
59.
WangC.-T. L.SchoferE. (2018). Coming out of the penumbras: World culture and cross-national variation in divorce rates. Social Forces, 97(2), 675–704. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soy070
60.
WeiM.RussellD. W.MallinckrodtB.VogelD. L. (2007). The experiences in close relationship scale (ECR)–short form: Reliability, validity, and factor structure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 88(2), 187–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223890701268041
61.
WhitsonJ. A.GalinskyA. D. (2008). Lacking control increases illusory pattern perception. Science, 322(5898), 115–117. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1159845
62.
ZakiJ.NeumannE.BaltianskyD. (2021). Market cognition: How exchange norms alter social experience. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 30(3), 236–241. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721421995492
63.
ZaleskiewiczT.GasiorowskaA. (2017). The psychological consequences of money for economic and social relationships. In Jansson-BoydC. V.ZawiszaM. J. (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of consumer Psychology (pp. 312–326). Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
64.
ZaleskiewiczT.GasiorowskaA.KuzminskaA. O.KorotuszP.TomczakP. (2020). Market mindset impacts moral decisions: The exposure to market relationships makes moral choices more utilitarian by means of proportional thinking. European Journal of Social Psychology, 50(7), 1500–1522. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2701
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
