The adsorption phenomenon is caused by dispersion forces (also known as London dispersion forces or van der Waals forces) which are short range and additive. Adsorption force is the sum of all interactions between all the atoms.
The pulling interactions cause the surface of a liquid to tighten like an elastic film.
A measure of the elastic force at the surface of a liquid is called surface tension.
There is a tendency to have minimum surface tension, i.e., decrease of free energy, which leads to adsorption.