Does Your Love Lift Me Higher? A Direct Replication of the Energising Role of Secure Relationships

Abstract

Previous work has revealed that priming people with significant others increases feelings of security and energy, and in turn, boosts exploration motivations. In this preregistered study, we directly replicated Luke et al.'s (2012) Study 2 (N = 281). We found similar results as the replicated study regarding increased security feelings and exploration motivations on the self-report measures after the priming. However, we did not find any support for the increased energy feelings after the attachment security priming. In addition, contrary to Luke et al.'s (2012) results, energy feelings did not mediate the relationship between security priming and exploration motivations. A discussion of null findings, along with the limitations of self-reports and potential misinterpretation of the mediational analyses, follows. We also discuss possible future implications of the current findings.