Unlike many social psychological theories that are limited by the Western cultural context in which they were developed, attachment theory is an exception in that it has been examined across cultures. However, existing cross-cultural research on attachment is limited in scope: there is little to no research on how attachment distributions vary based on ethnicity and religion, and it remains unclear which aspects of culture influence attachment outcomes. The current study expands the body of research on attachment theory by examining attachment as a function of country of origin, ethnicity, religious denomination, individualism/collectivism, and acculturation. We assessed attachment in an ethnically and religiously diverse sample that encompassed over fifty countries of origin, and found that attachment patterns varied based on region of origin, collectivism, acculturation, and ethnicity. These findings have broad implications, both for clinical usage and for empirical cross-cultural understanding.
Research has shown that people select securely attached individuals as their first choice when asked to choose among secure or insecure partner prototypes. Despite this pattern, not everyone chooses a secure partner in real life. The goal of the reported studies was to examine factors that lead people to select insecure mates. Specifically, the roles of flattery, appearance, and status were assessed. In the first study, we found that flattery increased attraction to insecure partners. Study 2 showed that men preferred physical beauty over security. In Study 3, anxious women were attracted to high‐status insecure men. These findings help explain why people may sometimes end up with insecure partners despite their professed preference for secure companions.
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