A signal detection analysis of chronic attachment anxiety at speed dating: Being unpopular is only the first part of the problem

Initiating a romantic relationship invokes an approach-avoidance conflict between the desire for affiliation and the fear of rejection; optimally,people should selectively approach potential partners who reciprocate their interest. this may be difficult for anxiously attached people: they may be unpopular,and their ambivalence could lead to either a fearfully selective approach at the cost of missed opportunities or an unselective,indiscriminate approach at the cost of increasing rejection. using a speed-dating paradigm,data were collected from 116 participants,and a signal detection framework was applied to examine the outcomes. for anxious participants,speed-dating attendance was motivated by loneliness. at speed dating,they were unpopular and unselective; they missed fewer opportunities but made more failed attempts. anxious men made fewer matches than nonanxious men,whereas anxious women were buffered by having a response bias toward saying yes to potential partners. attachment anxiety predicted outcomes above and beyond the powerful impact of attractiveness. © 2010 society for personality and social psychology,inc.