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Chapter 7: Interpersonal Attraction

Thursday, December 10, 2015


10:43 PM

Internal factors
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Emotions
Affect influences:

Perceptions

Cognitions

Motivations

Decision making

Interpersonal attraction
Positive affect leads to liking, and negative affect leads to

disliking

The better mood you are in, the more likely you are to like
someone
Resisting emotional influence

Being informed on the issues

Being aware of who and what triggers emotional


responses

Actively engage in evaluating people, candidates, or


issues for yourself
o
Needs & Personality
Need for Affiliation

Both a STATE and a TRAIT


It is one of Murrays Social Needs

Included among achievement, power, and

dominance
External sources
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Proximity
Bossard (1932)

People who are regularly acquainted with each other are


more likely to become friends, be in a relationship, and get
married

Repeated Exposure Effect


The more often we are exposed to a new stimulus,

the more favorable we are towards it


Festinger, Schacter, and Back (1950)

Residents inhabiting a two story building were examined

People who lived on different floors were least likely to be


friends, and people who lived on the same floor were very likely
to be friends

Those who lived near a ground floor staircase had friends


on both floors
Moreland & Beach (1992)

The more times a stranger attends class, the more that


stranger was liked by participants who were asked to rate her
o
Physical Attractiveness

Social
o

Attractiveness leads to positive affect


"What is beautiful is good"
What Causes Facial Attractiveness?

Childlike featers or mature features

Cute/boyish or mature masculine

Composite faces
An "average" face is more beautiful

Symmetrical faces

The color red makes women more attractive


Red as a background color especially enhances the

attractiveness of a woman to a man, but does not affect the


attractiveness of a man to a woman
Person Factors in Attractiveness

Need for cognition


If need is high, then a person is less affected by

attractivness

Gender
Physical attractiveness is more important to men

Material resources are more important to women

Situational Factors
Arousing situations increase need for affiliation

Snowstorms, hurricanes, earthquakes

Social Comparison Theory


People like to compare themselves to others

"Misery loves company"

Alcohol

Affects judgements and decision making


Closing time

People become more attractive when it's closer to closing


time at the bar because they are running out of time and people
want to at least get with someone
Opinions of others

Women are more likely to think someone is attractive


based on the opinions of others
Contrast effect

Seeing someone outstandingly attractive can cause


someone to rate a subsequent average looking person as much
lower

This is because compared to the first beautiful person, the


second person is very ugly, even though they might also be
good looking themselves
interactions
Similarity of Attitude
"Birds of a feather flock together"

Newcomb (1956)
Transfer students who had never met before were

all evaluated on certain personality traits

On a weekly basis, they were asked to rate how


much they liked each other
People who were more similar from the beginning

tended to like each other more by the end of the semester


Shows the similarity causes attraction and not the

other way around

Byrne & Nelson (1965)


Proportion of similarity

# of topics people have in common divided

by the number of topics they have talked about


People who have a higher proportion of

similarity tend to like each other much more

Rosenbaum (1986)
The Repulsion Hypothesis

What makes people like each other are not

their similarities, but the fact that they are not


repulsed too much by each other
Further studies proved this to be wrong, but

it does support the idea that "bad is strong"


Negative information has a more

powerful effect on our cognition

Balance Theory
People naturally organize their likes and dislikes in

a symmetrical way
When people like each other and they discover they

have something in common, there is balance, which is


emotionally pleasant
When people like each other and they discover

something different about each other, there is imbalance,


which is emotionally unpleasant
Both parties try to restore balance

When people dont like each other, there is

nonbalance
Discovering similarities or difference doesnt

have an effect because they are indifferent towards


each other
Similarity of Other Characterisitcs
Matching hypothesis

People tend to get with other people who they think have
a similar level of attractiveness as them

However, we would ideally prefer an extremely attractive


mate, even though we tend to focus on people who look like us
Reciprocity
Liking is often returned, even sometimes when it's undeserved

flattery (unless it's obvious)


Cross Cultural Consistency

Factors that determine attractiveness may vary from culture to


culture

Example:
People in the US prefer people who are more

similar to them (birds of a feather flock together) while


people in Japan prefer people that are higher in status
Close relationships
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Culture you are raised in
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Family and close friends
Close Friends

Secure Attachment Style


High self esteem and high interpersonal trust

Dismissing Attachment Style


High self esteem and low interpersonal trust

Preoccupied Attachment Style


Low self esteem and high interpersonal trust

Fearful-Avoidant Attachment Style


Low self esteem and low interpersonal trust

o
Romantic relationships
o
Marriage

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