Creating Closeness: In the Lab and In Real Life

Closeness in the Real Life

This past Valentine’s Day social media feeds were flooded with Mandy Len Catron’s (2015) New York Times article² discussing Arthur Aron’s (1997) study aimed at creating interpersonal closeness.¹ The article focused on a series of questions, which involve increasing levels of self-disclosure, that help develop intimacy between people. Shortly following the publication of this article, peoples’ accounts of their own experiences with Aron et al.’s 36 questions spread all over social media.

Ms. Catron put social psychologist Arthur Aron’s questions to the test by spending 90 minutes answering them in a bar with a university acquaintance of hers and then by standing on a bridge staring into this man’s eyes. Before describing the outcome of her real life research replication, it is important to outline Aron et al.’s work.

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