Shared Stressful Situations and Affiliation in Stranger Dyads: An experimental Analysis

Abstract

According to the tend-and-befriend theory, shared stressors may create situations in which the inclination to interact with another person (i.e., immediate affiliative desire) is elevated. This may create a situational context in which sustained affiliative responses towards an interaction partner are more likely to occur in the longer-term. In the present study, we randomly assigned 85 undergraduate stranger dyads (N = 170 participants; all women) to either shared stress or shared control experiences and measured immediate affiliative desire. The strangers in the dyads then interacted with one another in a discussion task, and participants’ long-term affiliative responses (liking and future intentions to affiliate) were assessed. The evidence suggested that shared stressful experiences (vs. the shared control experiences) promoted significantly more immediate affiliative desire. Furthermore, immediate affiliative desire mediated the association between shared stress and long-term affiliative responses. These findings offer insight into how shared stress may influence friendship development.