It's not just a man-thing: testing sex as a moderator between peer attachment and machiavellianism, competition and self-disclosure

Abstract

Whilst previous research has emphasized the importance of biological sex, individual differences in personality and motivations can also affect the how close people feel towards their friends. Here, we test the relationship between peer attachment and sex, Machiavellianism, competition and self-disclosure in 236 participants. We found that irrespective of sex, competition had an adverse effect on perceived attachment to a friend. Furthermore, two
sub-components of self-disclosure (honesty - accuracy and intent) had a positive impact on peer attachment, robust to sex differences. Sex moderated the relationship between peer attachment and depth, and peer attachment and amount of disclosure. Depth and amount of disclosure were important in improving male but not female friendship quality. Our findings suggest that rather than focusing on sex or personality in isolation from each other, future research on friendship should take both aspects into account.