If you are looking to travel with out spending too much while meeting and interacting with a group of people who share the same passion, then you should sign up for one of the many services that provide an all expenses paid trip to a new city abroad. There are many benefits of traveling in a group, or even utilizing a public guided tour. It gives people the opportunity to interact with people who are looking for similar adventures. In this post, we will be discussing how to interact with the people you are traveling with in order to gain relational closeness.
The Social Penetration Theory created by Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor studies the development of relational closeness. Following the two parts of the theory we can learn how to develop close relationships. The first part of the theory talks about the fact that relationships deepen and continue if you follow the rules of self-disclosure. Those rules are sharing superficial layers more often and sooner than other layers. The superficial layers consist of learning about biographical information and preferences, like food, hobbies, sports, etc. The second rule relates to the Law of Reciprocity, that is “A paced and orderly process in which openness in one person leads to the openness in the other” (pg.96). In order for relationships to build and be maintained each person must disclose in a similar fashion or else they risk having pull back in the relationship. The last rule of Self-disclosure is to peel deeper layers more slowly. This is important because similarly to the second rule, if deep layers are exposed to early it can lead to one person of the relationship to be uncomfortable and want them to pull back. The second part of the theory is that relationships continue if you calculate that the outcome of the relationship is “worth it” based on the Minimax Principle. Because we are human, we all have expectations. The minimax principle is when people seek to maximize their costs. Through life we experience and go in and out of relationships that we use to compare the current relationships we are in. This theory is useful because we can analyze how to create closer bonds with people who we are in new relationships with and people we already have relationships with.
You might be thinking, how would this help me while traveling? Well, if we travel in groups we interact with people who we will be spending lots of time with. When people travel they are constantly moving and sight seeing. If you are in a guided group, it is expected that you spend long hours of the day with new people. We can use Social Penetration to learn how to build relationships which the people we are going to be with and we will never know what those relationship will lead us to. My advice is to look for services that offer group travel and build relationships with people who share the same passion of traveling as you and build connections that can lead to building more new relationships.
Citations:
Griffin, Emory A., et al. A First Look at Communication Theory. McGraw-Hill Education, 2019.