Social Psychology Commons^™

Commitment Readiness And Relationship Formation, Benjamin W. Hadden, Christopher R. Agnew, Kenneth Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The concept of being ready for a relationship is pervasive in popular culture, but theoretical and empirical research on readiness is lacking. We offer a conceptualization of commitment readiness and provide some of the first empirical work examining readiness among single individuals—specifically how this construct shapes various aspects of relationship formation. Using data from five independent samples of individuals not involved in romantic relationships, we first establish that commitment readiness is associated with more interest in developing a close romantic relationship (Studies 1a, 1b, 2) and with active pursuit of relationship initiation (Study 2). We then test whether readiness among …