A second alternative possibility is that priming close others'
unreliability increases general materialism, rather than object attachment
per se. This possibility is suggested by theorizing on the use of
material objects to secure attention from close others (Mikulincer &
Shaver, 2008), and by evidence that attachment anxiety increases
the perceived value of material objects (Clark et al., 2011). Critically,
however, experimental evidence shows that priming uncertainties
about the self directly increases materialism (Chang & Arkin, 2002).
Therefore, if our predicted effect on object attachment was simply
due to increasing general materialism, there would be no reason to
expect that priming relationship uncertainty would increase object
attachment more so than priming uncertainty about the self.