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Research

The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness

Aron, Melinat, Aron, Vallone & Bator (1997) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(4)

Relied on in 3 places across the academy · 3 stated limits

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What it found

Pairs of strangers who worked through 36 escalating personal questions reported greater closeness afterwards than pairs who made small talk.

Escalating, reciprocal self-disclosure between strangers produced substantially more closeness in forty-five minutes than matched small talk.

What it does not show

Built to manufacture closeness between strangers in a laboratory in about 45 minutes. The authors are explicit that it was not designed to make people fall in love.

And where we carry it further

The authors are explicit that the procedure was built to create closeness in a laboratory, not to make people fall in love.

A laboratory procedure with assigned questions and a willing partner. It shows the mechanism works; it is not a script for a bar.

The authors are explicit that the procedure was built to create closeness in a laboratory, not to make people fall in love — and it was run between strangers, not long partners.

Where we rely on it

3 places in the academy. If this paper turned out to be wrong, this is the list that would have to change. Some of the instructions below are part of Gold; none of the findings are.

Cited alongside it

Papers that sit under the same topics and films. Not a claim that they agree with each other — only that the same exercises lean on both.

Research

A real study. We tell you what it found, how many people were in it, and what it can't prove.

Free to read, link to and quote. If we have carried this paper further than it goes, say so at contact@suaviq.com — corrections to this registry are the most useful mail we get.