Verification of supraliminal activation of the attachment system in adulthood: a pilot study

The behavioral attachment system (AS) is a unique biological and psychological mechanism, which operates like a thermostat. AS is activated whenever we experience difficult or stressful situations. Its primary goal is to motivate us to stay close to people who are important to us. An activated AS works until an individual regains emotional balance and a sense of security.

In empirical studies, researchers frequently ask subjects to consciously recall thoughts and feelings related to their loved ones to activate the attachment system. The goal of this project was to experimentally verify the effectiveness of this procedure. Following the attachment theory, we assumed that if the above-noted method activates AS, then a conscious recollection of thoughts and feelings associated with a loved one should increase the participants' accessibility of thoughts linked with interpersonal closeness and distance.

In a lexical decision test (LDT), shorter time spent on recognizing words related to distance and closeness was used as an indicator of AS activation. On a computer screen, in a random order, participants were shown words belonging to various semantic categories, including the above-noted interpersonal category, and pseudo-words, i.e. meaningless sequences of letters.

The study involved 70 people (70 percent women), age 19 to 45 (average age 25 years). The participants were randomly assigned to one of the three subgroups:

1. A group where AS was activated by asking people to recall memories of events, thoughts, and feelings related to an unsatisfactory relationship with a loved one.
2. A group where AS was deactivated by asking subjects to recall memories of a satisfying relationship.
3. A control group (neutral condition) where the subjects were asked to think about grocery shopping.

After the above-noted experimental manipulation, the participants were asked to completed the lexical decision test and to fill in several questionnaires measuring various parameters, including their attachment styles.

Contrary to our expectations, the results indicated that compared to the control group, participants who underwent the AS activation did not show any increase in cognitive accessibility of thoughts related to distance but showed a greater cognitive accessibility of thoughts of interpersonal closeness.

The results indicate that more studies are needed to assess the effectiveness of the AS activation procedure. It seems particularly important as this procedure is used in many empirical studies. As the effectiveness of this method is not proven, the results of studies using this method might need to be revised.