Festinger, Schachter and Back

year

1950

Aim

to investigate how proximity effects the formation of friendships

procedure

This study focused on residents of 1 large apartment complex

Residents did

not choose where to live—they were assigned apartments as

they became available. All residents were asked to indicate

which people from the same apartment complex they were

friends with.

Results

proximity was related to establishing

friendship:

– 41% of residents who lived next door to each other

indicated that they were friends

– 22% of those who lived two doors apart were friends

– only 10% of residents who lived on opposite ends of the

hall were friends.

Conclusion

Friendship may be induced by simple courtesy norms:

you run into each other, so you must engage in some

sort of polite interaction.

Friendship may be the result of the expectation of future

interactions: you will keep running into each other, so

for things not to be awkward you need to establish a

friendly relationship.