Navigating Friendship Formation in the Digital Era: The Role of Value Congruence in Emerging Adulthood

Forming novel friendships is an important aspect of emerging adulthood, yet little is known about how emerging adults identify potential friends in contexts where behavioral information is limited. We propose that emerging adults use value congruence to guide friendship formation when observable behavioral cues are constrained. Using an experimental approach across two studies, we investigated whether friendship interest in an unfamiliar individual was dependent on value congruence. In Study 1 (N = 322 university students; M age = 20.70, SD = 1.62; 50% female), we evaluated value-expressive self-descriptions of peers, while in Study 2 (N = 451 university students; M age = 19.88, SD = 1.64; 52% female), we examined friendship interest in the context of meeting someone online for the first time. Across both studies, we found associations between value congruence and friendship interest for conservation, openness, and self-transcendence values, but not for self-enhancement values. Additionally, we found that vignettes expressing openness and self-transcendence values generated higher friendship interest overall compared to those expressing self-enhancement values. Study 2 also revealed evidence for value incongruence effects, with participants reporting lower friendship interest when exposed to opposing values. These findings suggest that value (in)congruence plays a meaningful role in friendship formation among emerging adults, particularly when observable behavioral information is limited, with effects being most pronounced for values emphasizing the contrast between novelty-seeking and self-restraint.