Seeking emotional support: The influence of affiliative need and partner warmth.

Abstract People with strong affiliative needs were predicted to express more interest in interaction relevant to emotional support when their partners were warm and empathetic, but to express a desire to avoid interaction when their partners were less warm and empathetic. In contrast, people with lower affiliative needs were predicted to express little preference for either interacting or avoiding interaction, regardless of partner attributes. Participants were 83 previously unacquainted undergraduates who believed they would engage in mutual disclosures about emotionally distressing personal issues. After being exposed to bogus information about the other person participating in the session, respondents were given the option of interacting with the person or not. Results of the study confirmed the predictions, providing further support for incentive-based theories of affiliative need.