<![CDATA[Love languages have become an important way for Generation Z to express affection and maintain friendships. By fostering emotional comfort and trust, they may encourage greater self-disclosure in interpersonal relationships. This study aims to examine the role of love language use in promoting self-disclosure among Generation Z friends. Guided by Altman and Taylor’s Social Penetration Theory, this study employed a qualitative phenomenological approach to explore participants’ lived experiences. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with six Generation Z participants who actively practiced love languages in their friendships. The findings reveal that participants perceived love language as facilitating self-disclosure by creating emotional comfort and encouraging them to share personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences with trusted friends. Words of affirmation and quality time were the most frequently experienced forms of love language, whereas receiving gifts was mentioned least often. Participants consistently described these two forms as facilitating a greater amount of disclosure. However, they perceived love language as having a more limited role in the honesty and accuracy dimension of self-disclosure, which they associated more closely with individual characteristics and perceived trustworthiness. Overall, participants experienced love language as fostering emotional closeness and facilitating more open interpersonal communication within Generation Z friendships.]]>
