Psychological consequences of relational mobility

Abstract

Relational mobility is a socio-ecological variable that represents how much freedom and opportunity a society affords individuals to select and replace interpersonal relationships based on their personal preferences. As a socio-ecological dimension of variation in human societies, relational mobility can vary between countries, regions, and different points in history. In this article, we review evidence on how societal differences in relational mobility may lead to differences in behavioral and psychological tendencies of people who reside there. We particularly focus on two sets of consequences of relational mobility found by new studies: interpersonal strategies, such as passionate love and commitment behavior, as well as cultural thinking styles, such as attribution and attention.