Appropriateness of anxiety and drive for affiliation

Anxiety was induced in first/only born and later born subjects by the threatened injection of a harmless drug. Perceived appropriateness of the induced anxiety was manipulated by the experimenter's suggestion that anxiety over an injection was either perfectly natural (appropriate condition) or to be found only in rather nervous and effeminate men (inappropriate condition). The results indicated that the anxiety induction was successful, but that the perceived appropriateness of the anxiety determined the tendency to affiliate. Subjects in the appropriate condition showed a significantly greater tendency to affiliate than did subjects in the inappropriate condition. Birth order was related to anxiety on one of two measures, but was not implicated in the determination of the affiliative tendency.