An investigation into the interplay of attachment avoidance and interpersonal closeness on consumers’ sharing intentions

Sharing is predicted to be the novel way to consume: The Time Magazine (Walsh 2011)
stated sharing as one of ten ideas that were predicted to change the world in the future
and experts forecast the sharing economy to be worth $335 billion by 2025 (PwC 2015).
However, little is known about the reason for which some consumers are more
willing to provide their personal belongings for sharing than others. The present
research aims to fill this gap by investigating consumers’ interpersonal sharing
behaviour as a function of the individual’s level of attachment avoidance - the degree to
which individuals avoid closeness and dependency on others. Previous research
demonstrates that personal possessions can be perceived as an extension of self,
wherefore sharing them with others can be seen as a process of interpersonal interaction.
The author provides the first demonstration of this consequence by relating the
constructs of sharing and attachment avoidance.
Four studies provide evidence for the assumption that the consumers’ level of
attachment avoidance predicts the extent to which they were prone to provide their
personal possessions for sharing. Specifically, consumers high in attachment avoidance
were reluctant to share with close others (study 1), while this effect was reversed if the
sharing partner was interpersonally distant (study 2-4) and explained by perceived fear
to commit to another person as a mediator (study 4).
Together, these results offer new insights into the role of attachment avoidance
in influencing interpersonal behaviour and have important theoretical contributions and
managerial implications for marketing managers of sharing schemes. Limitations of this
study and avenues for future research are discussed