Geoff Macdonald

• University of Toronto

Relationship science currently lacks a theoretical approach to capture the variety of motivations potentially underlying the pursuit of romantic relationships. We introduce the Autonomous Motivation for Romantic Pursuit Scale (AMRPS) which conceptualizes and measures motivations ranging in levels of autonomy (from a motivation to intrinsic motivati...

Empathic accuracy—the ability to decipher others’ thoughts and feelings—promotes relationship satisfaction. Those high in attachment avoidance tend to be less empathically accurate; however, past research has been limited to relatively negative or neutral contexts. We extend work on attachment and empathic accuracy to the positive context of love....

Objective Relationship science has developed several theories to explain how and why people enter and maintain satisfying relationships. Less is known about why some people remain single, despite increasing rates of singlehood throughout the world. Using one of the most widely studied and robust theories—attachment theory—we aim to identify distinc...

As the number of single (unpartnered) individuals continues to rise, researchers across various disciplines have started to pay more attention to single individuals' lives. Yet, compared to the accumulated knowledge about experiences within romantic relationships, there is far less known about various experiences within singlehood. For singlehood r...

The Fear of Being Single (FOBS) Scale (Spielmann et al., 2013) assesses insecurity about singlehood, but its items are phrased for those who are currently single. The present research validated the FOBS in Relationships Scale for individuals currently in relationships. Results suggested that both single and partnered individuals experience FOBS, an...

Single people represent a diverse group of individuals; some happy, some not. This article represents a rejoinder to a recent review by Dr. Bella DePaulo of our singlehood review paper. Having our work reflected back to us from that perspective was useful for clarifying our own positions and values in approaching singlehood research, and we wanted...

Despite the growing interest in single (unpartnered) individuals’ well-being, there is a lack of descriptive research providing a comprehensive understanding of what singles value in their lives. In this research, we adopted a budget allocation methodology to examine what domains are prioritized in single individuals’ construal of a satisfying sing...

Despite the worldwide increase in unpartnered individuals (i.e., singles), little research exists to provide a comprehensive understanding of the heterogeneity within this population. In the present research (N = 3,195), we drew on the fundamental social motives framework to provide a theory-based description and understanding of different “types”...

Singlehood, defined as not being in a romantic relationship, is becoming increasingly common worldwide. Despite this, research on singlehood has not received remotely equivalent research attention as romantic relationships. Well-being research that has explicitly included singles has focused on whether coupled versus single people are more satisfie...

Objective: Individual differences in attachment insecurity can have important implications for experiences of positive emotions. However, existing research on the link between attachment insecurity and positive emotional experiences has typically used a composite measure of positive emotions, overlooking the potential importance of differentiating...

Recent studies suggest that one's personality relates to their music preferences. Separately, research from an attachment theory perspective has demonstrated that attachment security and insecurity are important relationship‐related individual differences. We combined these two lines of inquiry here by investigating whether the lyrics of individual...

Does entering a romantic relationship enhance or detract from employees’ work–life balance (WLB)? While different theoretical predictions can be made about how being in a relationship contributes to employees’ satisfaction with WLB, the literature lacks a robust investigation into this question. Using longitudinal data from Germany (n = 609; k = 2,...

A growing body of research suggests that despite the stereotype of being dissatisfied with their relationship status, there is variability in how single (unpartnered) individuals feel about singlehood. The current research examined how satisfaction with singlehood varies (linearly or nonlinearly) with age. In Study 1, we analyzed five cross-section...

Although some evidence exists to suggest that single (i.e., unpartnered) individuals are less sexually satisfied on average than are partnered individuals, it is unclear whether the variables correlating with each group’s sexual satisfaction are similar or different. This research sought to examine how desire for and actual engagement in solitary a...

Living single is becoming increasingly common worldwide and understanding within-group predictors of well-being among singles is becoming a stronger research priority. Although Pepping, MacDonald, and Davis suggested individual differences in attachment security may be useful for predicting singles' well-being, there are no published data on the is...

Dating is widely thought of as a test phase for romantic relationships, during which new romantic partners carefully evaluate each other for long-term fit. However, this cultural narrative assumes that people are well equipped to reject poorly suited partners. In this article, we argue that humans are biased toward pro-relationship decisions—decisi...

Dating is widely thought of as a test phase for romantic relationships, during which new romantic partners carefully evaluate each other for long-term fit. However, this cultural narrative assumes that people are well-equipped to reject poorly suited partners. In this paper, we argue that humans are biased toward pro-relationship decisions: decisio...

Associations have been found between communal motives to feel warmly connected with others and perceiving similarities between self and others, presumably because perceived self-other similarity helps satisfy those motives. The current research examined the phenomenon in a novel and consequential context: Young adults’ perceived self-parent agreeme...

We use the Investment Model framework to examine what relationship features are associated with interest in and positive evaluations of consensual non‐monogamy (CNM) among individuals in monogamous relationships. In data sets from the United States (Study 1), Europe (Study 2), and Korea (Study 3; total N = 886), perceptions of higher‐quality altern...

Why do some people maintain stable feelings of commitment toward their partners, whereas others’ feelings wax and wane from day to day? The current article draws insight from decision conflict research suggesting that individuals torn between decision options are particularly susceptible to attitude change. In three samples, we validated a stay/lea...

Why do some people maintain stable feelings of commitment toward their partners, whereas others’ feelings wax and wane from day to day? The current paper draws insight from decision conflict research suggesting that individuals torn between decision options are particularly susceptible to attitude change. In three samples, we validated a stay/leave...

Affectionate touch is crucial for well-being. However, attachment avoidance is associated with negative attitudes toward touch. We tested two preregistered hypotheses about how attachment avoidance influences the association between touch in romantic couples and psychological well-being. We examined whether greater attachment avoidance is associate...

Prospection (mentally simulating future events) generates emotionally-charged mental images that guide social decision-making. Positive and negative social expectancies—imagining new social interactions to be rewarding versus threatening—are core components of social approach and avoidance motivation, respectively. Interindividual differences in su...

Despite the worldwide increase in single-person households, little research has examined what factors contribute to a satisfying single life. We used three data sets ( N = 3,890) to examine how satisfaction with sexual and social aspects of life are linked with single people’s perceptions of marriage and singlehood. Our results suggest that higher...

Given the powerful implications of relationship quality for health and well-being, a central mission of relationship science is explaining why some romantic relationships thrive more than others. This large-scale project used machine learning (i.e., Random Forests) to 1) quantify the extent to which relationship quality is predictable and 2) identi...

In this prospective longitudinal study, we examined whether and how lack of intimacy or meaningful connection to a romantic partner (i.e., low social reward) and concerns over negative evaluation by the partner (i.e., high social threat) each predict dissolution of a relationship as well as adjustment when a breakup occurs. Our results showed that...

With a growing body of relationship research relying on dyadic data (i.e., in which both members of a couple are participants), researchers have raised questions about whether such samples are representative of the population or unique in important ways. In this research, we used two large data sets (Study 1: n = 5,118; Study 2: n = 5,194) that inc...

To examine cultural, parental, and personal sources of young adults’ long-term romantic partner preferences, we had undergraduates ( n = 2,071) and their parents ( n = 1,851) in eight countries (Canada, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, Philippines, the United States) rate or rank qualities they would want in the student’s partner. We introduc...

Research on adult attachment in romantic relationships has focused on the negative outcomes that avoidantly attached individuals face. The present research uses observational research methods to determine if there are specific ways of communicating affection that might help avoidantly attached people reap similar levels of rewards from affectionate...

Romantic relationships help people meet needs for connection and emotional and sexual fulfillment. In the current research, we investigate an unexplored response to feeling sexually and relationally unfulfilled: reflecting on positive sexual experiences with past partners (or sexual nostalgia). Across three studies, people low in attachment avoidan...

Prospection (mentally simulating future events) generates emotionally charged mental images that guide social decision-making. Positive and negative social expectancies - imagining new social interactions to be rewarding vs. threatening - are core components of social approach and avoidance motivation, respectively. Stable individual differences in...

To examine cultural, gender, and parent–child differences in partner preferences, in eight countries undergraduates (n = 2,071) and their parents (n = 1,851) ranked the desirability of qualities in someone the student might marry. Despite sizable cultural differences—especially between Southeast Asian and Western countries—participants generally ra...

Objective: People gather important social information from subtle nonverbal cues. Given that one's attachment style can meaningfully affect the quality of one's relationships, we investigated whether people could perceive men's and women's attachment styles from photos of their neutral faces. Method: In two studies, we measured targets' attachme...

Fear of being single (FOBS) tends to predict settling for less when seeking a romantic partner. The present research sought to examine whether this is due, at least in part, to lower physical attractiveness among those who fear being single. In a photo-rating study (Study 1, N = 122) and a speed-dating study (Study 2, N = 171), participants complet...

Previous research has conflated different types of casual sex, potentially obscuring patterns that may vary across categories. Using data from two large online community samples, we examined whether differences in attachment orientation predict experiences in casual sex encounters (i.e., One-Night Stand, Booty Call, Fuck Buddies, Friends With Benef...

Social ties are critical to human health and well-being; thus, it is important to gain a better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms involved in the development of interpersonal closeness. Prior research indicates that endogenous opioids may play a role in social affiliation by elaborating feelings of social connection and warmth; howeve...

Attachment anxiety is a form of attachment insecurity characterized by chronic worries about rejection and need for reassurance. Given the critical role a sense of security plays in maintaining healthy relationships, individuals high in attachment anxiety tend to struggle in romantic relationships, which carries serious implications for their broad...

Significance Although a romantic partner’s personality creates an interpersonal environment that can be highly consequential for emotional and physical well-being, little research has examined to what degree romantic partners’ personalities are similar across relationships. In this study, we provide evidence of stability in partner personality, imp...

Five studies examined whether receiving gratitude expressions from a romantic partner can buffer insecurely attached individuals from experiencing low relationship satisfaction and commitment. In Study 1, the negative associations between attachment avoidance and both satisfaction and commitment were weaker among individuals who perceived that thei...

Romantic pursuit decisions often require a person to risk one of the two errors: pursuing a romantic target when interest is not reciprocated (resulting in rejection) or failing to pursue a romantic target when interest is reciprocated (resulting in a missed romantic opportunity). In the present research, we examined how strongly people wish to avo...

The prosperity gospel is one of the fastest growing religious movements in America. With popularized figures like Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar performing services to sold-out stadiums, new converts are drawn by the optimism-infused messages of positivity and financial wealth. Here we offer a formal scientific test of prosperity gospel’s impact on...

The number of people who remain single for long periods of time is sizeable and growing in the Western world, yet they are largely ignored in psychological theory and research. In this article, we review psychological and sociological evidence that long-term singles are a heterogeneous group of individuals, outline an attachment-theoretical model o...

The decision to end a romantic relationship can have a life-changing impact on the partner as well as the self. Research on close relationships has thus far focused on self-interested reasons why people choose to stay in their relationship versus leave. However, a growing body of research on decision-making and prosociality shows that when people m...

When avoidantly attached individuals are simultaneously high in attachment anxiety, they are inclined to experience strong internal conflicts between seeking and avoiding closeness. This research examined whether the extent to which closeness, assessed as the inclusion of other in the self (IOS), is associated with greater commitment varies within...

Rates of singlehood are increasing rapidly in the Western World. In the current paper, we discuss the phenomenon of long-term singlehood from an attachment perspective, outline three distinct sub-groups of singles (anxious, avoidant, and secure), and demonstrate the utility of these groups by highlighting their unique characteristics and possible l...

The decision to end a romantic relationship can have a life-changing impact on the partner as well as the self. Research on close relationships has thus far focused on self-interested reasons why people choose to stay in their relationship versus leave. However, a growing body of research on decision-making and prosociality shows that when people m...

Romantic pursuit decisions often require a person to risk one of two errors: pursuing a romantic target when interest is not reciprocated (resulting in rejection), or failing to pursue a romantic target when interest is reciprocated (resulting in a missed romantic opportunity). In the present research, we examined how strongly people wish to avoid...

Social exclusion has been shown to influence sensitivity to physical pain. Attachment theory suggests a primary response to rejection should be seeking out the company of a close other. Based on this prediction, we hypothesized that the presence of an attachment figure versus a stranger following rejection would permit acknowledgement of distress a...

The present research examined the subjective experience of deciding whether or not to end a romantic relationship. In Study 1, open-ended reasons for wanting to stay in a relationship versus leave were provided by three samples and categorized by trained coders, resulting in 27 distinct reasons for wanting to stay (e.g., emotional intimacy, investm...

The anchoring effect has been replicated so extensively that it is generally thought to be ubiquitous. However, anchoring has primarily been tested in domains in which people are motivated to reach accurate conclusions rather than biased conclusions. Is the anchoring effect robust even when the anchors are threatening? In three studies, participant...

Past research on individuals high in attachment avoidance has pointed to these individuals being relatively uninterested in intimacy. However, a small body of literature suggests that if presented with warmth and positive feedback, avoidant individuals will respond positively to intimacy to an even greater extent than secure individuals. The goal o...

Adult attachment affects close bonds, including bonds with fictional characters, but does it also influence the level of engagement with fictional worlds? This article aims to build on previous research on how attachment relates to narrative transportation. In Study 1, attachment anxiety, but not attachment avoidance, predicted a greater tendency t...

How do people believe they can best maintain sexual satisfaction in their romantic relationships? In the current research, we draw upon the literature on implicit theories of relationships to develop and validate a scale examining 2 types of lay beliefs about how sexual satisfaction can be maintained over time. Individuals high in sexual growth bel...

Decisions about who to date are increasingly being made while viewing a large pool of dating prospects simultaneously or sequentially (e.g., online dating). The present research explores how the order in which dating prospects are evaluated affects the role in dating decisions of a variable crucial to relationship success – partner responsiveness....

Social psychologists theorize that individuals seek connection following rejection. However, accepting connection from a low status other may imply that one is of similarly low status, which may call into question one’s prospects for future acceptance. We hypothesized that rejection would lead individuals to distance themselves from a low status ot...

Mate preferences often fail to correspond with actual mate choices (e.g., Eastwick & Finkel, 2008). The present research presents a novel mechanism for why this phenomenon occurs: people overestimate their willingness to reject unsuitable romantic partners. Across two studies, single individuals were given the opportunity to either accept or dec...

In a series of experiments we examined heterosexuals' reactions to the timing of disclosure of a gender-matched confederate's same-sex dating partner. Disclosure occurred in a naturalistic context-that is, it occurred when meeting, or expecting to soon meet, a same-sex attracted individual, who voluntarily shared this information with the participa...

This research investigated whether people who fear being single have a more difficult time letting go of ex-partners following a romantic breakup. Data were collected in a cross-sectional study (N = 209, 64% women, Mage = 30 years old) as well as a one-month daily experience study of individuals who just went through a romantic breakup (N = 117, 44...

We argue that attachment theory may provide a useful framework for understanding individuals’ reactions to social exclusion. Attachment theory suggests that social exclusion should prompt an individual to seek comfort from an accepting attachment figure. However, most experimental studies constrain individuals from seeking out an attachment figure...

We review the emerging evidence suggesting that the largely separate research areas of romantic relationships and judgment and decision making (JDM) can usefully inform each other. First, we present evidence that decisions in more traditional JDM domains (e.g., consumerism, economics) share important features with romantic-relationship decisions, i...

The present research demonstrates that fear of being single predicts settling for less in romantic relationships, even accounting for constructs typically examined in relationship research such as anxious attachment. Study 1 explored the content of people's thoughts about being single. Studies 2A and 2B involved the development and validation of th...

Researchers are increasingly studying close relationships across cultural contexts. One issue that arises when applying scales originally developed in Western countries to a different cultural context is measurement invariance. Researchers often do not examine whether scales show invariance across cultures and thus can be used with confidence. The...

Although separate literatures have emerged on effects of social threats (i.e., rejection and negative evaluation) and rewards (i.e., connection and intimacy) on the process of commitment to a romantic relationship, no research has examined the influence of both simultaneously. Using an attachment framework, we examined the relation of social threat...

Although theoretical perspectives on adult attachment forward relational ambivalence as a defining characteristic of at least some forms of insecurity, work demonstrating an ambivalent structure to the relational attitudes of insecure individuals has been rare. The current research examines the similarity and intensity of perceptions of social thre...

Although a great deal of attention has been paid to the role of people's own investment in promoting relationship commitment, less research has considered the possible role of the partner's investments. An experiment (Study 1) and two combined daily experience and longitudinal studies (Studies 2 and 3) documented that perceived investments from one...

Relationship research typically treats feelings about current romantic partners as independent of any lingering attachment to past partners. In contrast, the current study tests for an inverse association between current relationship quality and attachment to ex-partners. A longitudinal study followed individuals in relationships at three points ov...

Models of social response concern the identification and delineation of possible responses to social pressure. Previous efforts toward a unified model have been limited to conceptualizations that define conformity and its alternatives based on discrete categories (e.g., Montgomery, 1992; Nail et al., 2000). Social response in many settings, however...

We examine whether lower expectations for social reward selectively applied to high intimacy contexts may help avoidantly attached individuals minimize distress from reward loss. Studies 1, 2, and 4 demonstrated that avoidant attachment was negatively associated with perceived intimacy potential in relationships involving approach of closeness (cur...

Research has suggested that individuals lower in self-esteem restrain from fully valuing romantic relationships because of relatively low confidence in positive regard from their partners (i.e., positive reflected appraisals). MacDonald and Jessica (2006) provided evidence that in Indonesia, where family plays an important role in mate selection, l...

Although regret plays a central role in decision making, few studies have explored the nature of regret in close relationships. We hypothesized that anxiously attached individuals, who are hypersensitive to relationship threat and prone to ambivalence in close relationships, would be particularly likely to experience regret over relationship-relate...

Regulation of romantic investment is often examined in terms of concerns over self-protection. Perceived opportunity for intimate connection has been an overlooked motivational force in investment decisions. In 4 studies, participants assessed risks of rejection and opportunity for connection from future partners (among single participants), curren...

Anxious attachment predicts strong desires for intimacy and stability in romantic relationships, yet the relation between anxious attachment and romantic commitment is unclear. We propose that extant literature has failed to find a consistent relation because anxiously attached individuals experience conflicting pressures on commitment. Data from A...

This research examined reports of the real-world use of reverse psychology, or what we term strategic self-anticonformity (SSA). In Study 1, participants reported examples in which they engaged in SSA and rated the success and frequency of use of this influence tactic. These data suggested the existence of two forms of SSA, one used as a general pe...

In 5 studies, the authors examined the hypothesis that people have systematically distorted beliefs about the pain of social suffering. By integrating research on empathy gaps for physical pain (Loewenstein, 1996) with social pain theory (MacDonald & Leary, 2005), the authors generated the hypothesis that people generally underestimate the severity...

Individuals high in attachment avoidance claim to be indifferent to the opinions of others. Carvallo and Gabriel (2006) showed that dismissive avoidants who received positive social feedback reported higher levels of positive affect and state self-esteem than dismissives in control conditions. Their data suggest that avoidant individuals are sensit...

While previous research has demonstrated a reduction in physical pain sensitivity in response to social exclusion, the manipulations employed have arguably been far removed from typical daily experience. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of relatively ordinary social encounters on the perception of pain. Healthy participants...

Pain, whether caused by physical injury or social rejection, is an inevitable part of life. These two types of pain-physical and social-may rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms that register pain-related affect. To the extent that these pain processes overlap, acetaminophen, a physical pain suppressant that acts through central...

Not So Private Lives was a national survey involving 2032 same-sex attracted Australians, aged 18-82, living in metropolitan and rural Australia. Findings relate to gender and age-cohort differences for awareness of same-sex attractions, preferred timing of disclosure of one’s sexuality in everyday encounters, personal preferences for relationship...

The present research demonstrates that focusing on someone new may help anxiously attached individuals overcome attachment to an ex-romantic partner, suggesting one possible motive behind so-called rebound relationships. A correlational study revealed that the previously demonstrated link between anxious attachment and longing for an ex-partner was...

Ingroup support for sexual minority individuals may be somewhat different from that of many (heterosexual) racial/ethnic minority groups whose sense of belonging may stem from a shared identity with family and similar community members. This distinction raises the important question of whether out-group (i.e., heterosexual) acceptance plays a uniqu...

This research investigated the influence of reminders of mortality on biased attention for fear-relevant animals across 2 studies. In each study, participants completed a baseline dot-probe test of attention to fear-relevant animals (snakes and spiders). After random assignment, participants completed a mortality salience or control writing task (a...

To examine the hypothesis that experimental threats to social belongingness, interacting with individual differences in attachment security, cause modification of pain threshold reports by individuals who report high pain thresholds at baseline. In each of three studies, baseline pain threshold and tolerance were assessed in response to a pain task...

Murray and colleagues’ dependency regulation model suggests that individuals in romantic relationships permit themselves to be emotionally dependent on a romantic partner only when they are certain they are valued by their partners. We argue that in cultures where family has a role in mate selection, family approval of the relationship provides an...

This study tested the hypothesis derived from social pain theory (MacDonald & Leary, 2005) that pain affect serves as a signal of perceived social exclusion. Participants ranging in experience of persistent physical pain completed measures of pain affect, anxious and avoidant attachment, anxiety, and depression. Higher levels of pain affect were fo...

In this paper, we highlight the importance of the distinction between public and private attitudes in research on attitude change. First, we clarify the definitions of public and private attitudes by locating the researcher as a potential source of influence. In a test of this definition, we compare participant reports of potentially embarrassing b...

In comments on G. MacDonald and M. R. Leary (2005), J. Panksepp (2005) argued for more emphasis on social pain mechanisms, whereas P. J. Corr (2005) argued for more emphasis on physical defense mechanisms. In response to the former, the authors clarify their positions on the topics of anger, the usefulness of rat models, the role of analgesic mecha...

The authors forward the hypothesis that social exclusion is experienced as painful because reactions to rejection are mediated by aspects of the physical pain system. The authors begin by presenting the theory that overlap between social and physical pain was an evolutionary development to aid social animals in responding to threats to inclusion. T...

Descriptive models of social response are concerned with identifying and discriminating between different types of response to social influence. In a previous article (Nail, MacDonald, & Levy, 2000), the authors demonstrated that 4 conceptual dimensions are necessary to adequately distinguish between such phenomena as conformity, compliance, contag...