The Influence of Attachment Style on the Extent to Which the Content of Episodic Future Thinking Relates to Interpersonal Relationships

Abstract: What we imagine about the future can shape our present emotions, decisions, and behaviors. A key question, then, is whether individuals spontaneously think about their interpersonal relationships when engaging in episodic future thinking. Two studies explored the influence of attachment style on episodic future thinking content. Study 1 involved 155 participants conducting five episodic future thinking tasks. Results show that attachment anxiety positively predicted the relevance of the content to interpersonal relationships, whereas attachment avoidance negatively predicted this relevance. Study 2 involved 67 participants performing nonstress and stressful episodic future thinking. Results showed attachment anxiety consistently increased interpersonal content, while attachment avoidance reduced it only in nonstress tasks. These findings support the features of attachment style also manifest when imagining future scenarios.