Affiliation and Friendship

Type of psychology: Social psychology
Fields of study: Interpersonal relations; social motives
Affiliation is the tendency to seek the company of others; people are motivated to affiliate
for several reasons, and affiliation also meets many human needs. Friendship is
an important close relationship based on affiliation, attraction, and intimacy.
Key concepts
• affiliation
• attraction
• communal relationship
• complementarity
• consensual validation
• exchange relationship
• propinquity
• proselytize
• social comparison
Affiliation is the desire or tendency to be with others of one’s own kind.
Many animal species affiliate, collecting in groups, flocks, or schools to migrate
or search for food. Human affiliation is not controlled by instinct but
is affected by specific motives. One motivation for affiliation is fear: People
seek the company of others when they are anxious or frightened. The presence
of others may have a calming or reassuring influence. Research in 1959
by social psychologist Stanley Schachter indicated that fear inducement
leads to a preference for the company of others. Further work confirmed
that frightened individuals prefer the company of others who are similarly
frightened, rather than merely the companionship of strangers. This preference
for similar others suggests that affiliation is a source of information as
well as reassurance.