Will romantic partners be reluctant to take social support outside their romantic relationships?: The exclusivity of support taking as a function of relationship status and general trust

Abstract

In this study, we explored factors related to exclusive support relationships. From the theoretical frameworks of high general trust (Yamagishi, 1998) and evolutionary psychology, we predicted that romantic partners would be more reluctant to take social support outside their relationships than nonromantic opposite-sex friendship partners with controlling particularistic trust in their relationships being controlled and that such exclusivity of support taking that romantic partners show would be found more clearly among individuals with low general trust. To examine the above predictions, we conducted an investigation in which 136 undergraduates participated. As predicted, high general-trusters were reluctant to seek social support outside their romantic relationships in which high particularistic trust developed. This result was not found about friendships between both high and low trustable opposite-sex partners. These findings suggested that it is difficult for low general-trusters to expand their social support network when they have romantic relationship. Finally, we discussed that ease of resource exchange varies with belonging relationships.View full abstract