Purpose: Breakout rooms are commonly used by lecturers as a means to achieve collaborative learning in online lessons. Although breakout rooms can be effective at encouraging student engagement, interaction and learning, many students dislike being forced to interact with peers, and for some students, it can lead to feelings of anxiety and stress. Successful collaborative learning depends upon having the "right" individuals working together, so the purpose of this research is to identify specific learner attributes that are associated with purposeful interpersonal interaction in breakout rooms. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey was used to obtain data from 664 higher education students in the USA, which were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings: Students' technology readiness, social identification and intercultural communication competence are each significantly related to the achievement of purposeful interpersonal interaction, which is strongly related to students' perceived learning. Practical implications: The findings of this research emphasize the importance of lecturers considering learner attributes when forming breakout room groups. Originality/value: The breakout room represents a unique and specific context for collaborative learning, where there may be minimal lecturer supervision and where students may choose to disengage by turning off their cameras and microphones or simply listen without participating (known as lurking). The existing literature has given little attention to how lecturers allocate students to online breakout rooms.