I'm all ears: The need to belong motivates listening to emotional disclosure

•Belonging motivates listening to emotional, but not descriptive, disclosure.•As belonging increased, so did the desire to listen to emotional disclosure.•However it did not increase the desire listen to descriptive disclosure.•These effects were not related to the listener's mood or self-esteem.

People regularly disclose their emotions with friends. But why do people listen to their friends' emotional disclosures? In this investigation, we tested the belongingness hypothesis — which is that the need to belong motivates people to listen to their friends disclose emotional, but not descriptive, information. Study 1 reveals that the need to belong is associated with wanting to listen to friends' emotional, but not descriptive, self-disclosures. Studies 2 and 3 manipulate the need to belong via two different mechanisms. They reveal that increased belonging needs, and not differences in mood and self-esteem, were associated with an increased desire to listen to friends disclose emotional, but not descriptive, information. This research provides new insights into the self-disclosure process, by illustrating a potential process that encourages people to listen to their friends.