This month, the article Attachment and Intrasexual Competitiveness in Committed Individuals From Chile by Oriana Figueroa, student of the 2017 Generation of the Doctorate in of Social Complexity Sciences (DCCS) of the Research Center in Social Complexity (CICS), was published in the Interpersona: An International Journal on Personal Relationship Social of the University of Development, who participated as co-author of the researchers Ana María Fernández, José Antonio Muñoz-Reyes, Abraham P. Buunk and Paula Pavez.

The research addresses the dimensions of attachment in terms of intrasexual competence – as an adaptive characteristic of human mating – that is, the perception of potential rivals when establishing reproduction strategies. For this reason, intrasexual competitiveness and attachment dimensions (closeness, dependence, anxiety and avoidance) were evaluated in a sample of 323 adult heterosexual men and women who, at the time of the study, were involved in a romantic relationship or were married or in a cohabiting living arrangement. 

The results of the study suggest that people who develop attachment anxiety are characterized by greater rivalry and competition between people of the same sex, which can negatively affect their own close relationships with people of the same sex, in addition to impacting other interpersonal areas. In this way, the main hypothesis of the researchers was confirmed that adult attachment anxiety is the most relevant indicator of intrasexual competitiveness in individuals who were involved in a romantic relationship.

This study was supported by the Fondecyt Regular 1140234 and 1181114 of the Government of Chile.

Read the full article here