Following this line of research, Kane, McCall, Collins, and Blascovich (2012) asked young adults to complete a threatening cliff-walking task in an immersive virtual environment. In this virtual world, each participant's romantic partner was, in three different experimental conditions, absent from the virtual world; present in the world and attentive to the participant during the task (waving, clapping at successes, head nodding, and actively orienting his or her body toward the participant); or present but inattentive (looking away from the participant). Participants in the attentive-partner condition experienced the task as less stressful than those who were alone; they also reported feeling more secure during the task and were less vigilant of their partners' behavior, compared to those in the inattentive-partner condition. These findings suggest that a romantic partner can alleviate distress, particularly if he or she acts in an attentive and responsive mannerthat is, as a security-enhancing attachment figure.