Week 10 - Attraction and Close Relationships

Love is an emotion but not a basic one; its manifestation depends on culture, context, and relationship type.

Passion: Sexual attraction and desire.
Intimacy: Feelings of warmth and a desire to share.
Commitment: Desire to maintain the relationship through adversities.
Different combinations of these three components define various types of love (e.g., Liking = Intimacy only, Infatuation = Passion only, Consummate Love = Intimacy + Passion + Commitment).

Love fostered serial monogamy, maximizing procreation, security (two caregivers), and paternalism (lower cuckold likelihood).

Social Exchange Theory: We maximize benefits and minimize costs; relationships with more rewards and fewer costs are more satisfying and enduring.
Equity Theory: Satisfaction occurs when the ratio of benefits to contributions is similar for both partners.

Oxytocin ("cuddle hormone"): Involved in social bonding and romantic attachment, linked to parental behavior and pair-bonding activations. However, its role is complex; not a single molecule explanation and can also increase negative behaviors.
Testosterone: Related to sexual drive, but levels return to normal over time, suggesting it's not sufficient for long-term bonding.

Facial Symmetry: People are attracted to symmetrical faces, which may signal health.
Facial Averageness: Composite "average" faces are often rated as more attractive, aligning with prototypes of ideal partners.
Facial Similarity: People rate photos containing about $22\%$ of their own face as more attractive until they become consciously aware of it.

Heterosexual males find cues of female fertility attractive (e.g., youth, health cues like symmetry, fertility cues like breasts and waist).
Waist-to-Hip Ratio (WHR): A ratio of $0.7$ is widely considered ideal. Evidence from historical models and self-reported preferences supports this.
Environmental Cues: Access to resources can alter attraction ideals; hard times correlate with different ideal WHRs ( $r = 0.48$ with Playboy models).
Temporal Variations: Beauty ideals, including WHR, have changed over time, challenging the idea of a universal, evolutionarily derived ideal.

Relationships are economic arrangements where partners share resources.
Wealthier males often have more procreation opportunities cross-culturally.
Wealth inequality influences mate competition and relationship behaviors differently for males and females.

Debate exists on human pheromones; no single chemical directly causes a behavioral response.
Body Odour: Females are attracted to higher testosterone male smells, especially during ovulation. Male testosterone increases after smelling ovulating women's body odor.

Mere Exposure Effect: People tend to like things they are familiar with.
Propinquity Effect: People typically form relationships with others with whom they have repeated interactions.
- Evolutionary: Early humans were wary of outsiders; familiarity was adaptive.
- Cognitive: Repeated stimuli are easier to recognize, increasing attraction.
Limitations: Familiarity can lead to boredom, reduced attraction, or increased conflict after saturation or when unattractive traits emerge.

Law of Attraction (Rhamey, 1965): A significant positive association between reported similarity and attraction across traits like height, personality, beliefs, and socioeconomic status.
Reasons for Attraction:
- Reduced Conflict: Similar partners have fewer disagreements.
- Positive Self-Concept: Similarity reinforces positive beliefs about oneself.
Actual vs. Perceived Similarity:
- Actual similarity: Important in brief interactions; not strongly associated with long-term satisfaction.
- Perceived similarity: Strongly associated with satisfaction and attraction in actual relationships.

Interpersonal Complementarity Principle: Individuals' behaviors invite specific responses; affiliative behaviors promote similar responses. However, in terms of control, dominance promotes submissiveness and vice versa, leading to greater satisfaction when these complement.

Historical legal restrictions (e.g., in Australia) prohibited intergroup marriage.
Despite removal of legal barriers, intergroup relationships remain less common.
Predictors of Cross-Group Relationships: Intergroup warmth, anxiety, and prejudices. Perceived dissimilarities arising from intergroup boundaries reduce appeal.
Group-Based Propinquity: Greater exposure to outgroup members can increase willingness to date, but this effect is race-specific.