AN ATTACHMENT PERSPECTIVE ON TRUST AND COMPLIANCE: Secure and Insecure Forms of Compliance Toward Romantic Partners and Governmental Institutions

In this chapter, we apply attachment theory to explain individual variations in trust and compliance when dealing with romantic partners and governmental instituetions. We contrast normative, value-driven compliance with instrumental, fear-based compliance and argue that deep-seated attachment orientations channel the same request into distinct motives. Secure individuals, benefiting from responsive partners and procedurally just authorities, perceive legitimacy and comply out of autonomous cooperation. Attachment-anxious people, however, use compliance as a defensive maneuver to forestall rejection; their willingness rises when exclusion threats are salient, and compliance can soothe rejection concerns. Attachment-avoidant individuals, prioritizing autonomy, generally resist complying. Six experiments with Israeli adults corroborate these predictions. First, threat manipulations heightened compliance only among the highly anxious. Second, opportunities to comply reduced attachment-anxious people's mental access to rejection-related thoughts, whereas failing to comply intensified their rejection-related concerns. Third, making salient the responsiveness of a relationship partner or the procedural fairness of a governmental agent boosted legitimacy, compliance, and broader cooperation mainly among attachment-secure participants. These findings show how attachment processes shape compliance-related dynamics in relationships from intimate dyads to civic life.