Chapter 7 - Interpersonal Attraction

• Acquaintanceship processes: becoming acquainted with, friends with people

  • Propinquity: proximity/physical closeness to other people

    • Classroom seating, dorms, apt complexes, etc.

  • Zajonc’s mere exposure effect: we tend to like people we see more frequently since it’s routine and familiar to see them

    • Experiment with Chinese symbols, picked ones that looked pleasing and brought them in a week later, subjects gave the ones they saw the week before a higher rating

• Affect

  • Positive affect > liking, negative affect > disliking

    • Can be from any source (situational factors): music, lighting, bad news, temperature, other people’s behaviors, insults, compliments, etc

• Need for Affiliation (nAff)

  • The need to establish and maintain positive social relationships; related but different from extroversion

    • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): projective test involving ambiguous picture (usually people), participants write the scenario leading to the picture which is assumed to reveal their personality

      • McAdams & Constantian (1983) – Pagers

        • high nAff = writing letters, on phone, with a group when pinged with questionnaires from the pager

        • low nAff = alone, reading, watching TV, etc. when pinged

        • Affect matched with nAff: high nAff were happier when with people than when alone and vice versa for people with low nAff

• Other factors affecting acquaintanceship

  • Fear: situational factor regardless of personality

  • Schacter’s study with expecting electric shocks vs. not; given choice to wait alone, with a participant from the same study, or one from a different study

    • Preferred to wait with participants from the same study

    • “Misery loves miserable company”

• Observable characteristics

  • Cognitive disregard (Rodin, 1987): people not within the scope of your thought process get ‘skipped over’

    • Adults appearing young

• Physical attractiveness

  • Women: large eyes and pupils, small nose and chin, big smile, slim figure, prominent cheekbones & narrow cheeks, high eyebrows, shorter than the male

    • Mature features: high eyebrows, cheekbones, angular features

    • Childlike features: rounded face, big eyes, shorter

  • Men: broad shoulders, large eyes, prominent cheekbones, large chin, big smile, slim legs & waist, tall, symmetry

  • In both: symmetry, averageness

    • more agreement for female than male attraction

    • Averageness: mixing of somewhat ‘extreme’ traits balances out to make an overall attractiveness face (face mixing seen in article #5 and on PPT)

  • Matching hypothesis: people tend to pair up with others with similar levels of attractiveness; same sex friends, opposite sex friends, dating, and spouses. Mismatches catch our attention, but considered exceptions to the rule

  • Halo effect: assumed higher self-esteem, intelligence, happiness, and well-adjusted for attractive people

• Becoming Friends

  • Some acquaintances become your friends, some don’t. What makes you want to befriend someone (or not?)

    • Attitude similarity: more similarity > more liking (same interests, hobbies, political party, music taste, etc.) (Strongest predictor or friendship!!)

    • Repulsion hypothesis: less similarity > less liking

Ex:

Person A: 10 similar attitudes, 10 dissimilar attitudes

Person B: 10 similar As, 5 dissimilar As

Person C: 5 similar As, 10 dissimilar As

Person A and B are TIED for likelihood to befriend; dissimilar attitudes have less impact than the amount of similar attitudes under Similarity hypothesis (doesn’t account for attitude strength)

For likelihood to dislike, Person A and C are tied because similar attitudes don’t matter under the Repulsion hypothesis

- Why does attitude similarity matter at all? Inability to bond with someone is going to prevent you from being friends with them + Balance Theory

- Consensual validation: People agreeing with you comforts you that you have the ‘correct’ attitude, increasing friendliness with those people (opposite if they disagree with you)

· Reciprocity (of liking): giving back to another person in response to behavior (doing a favor for them, they return it); also

applies to someone giving indication they like you (compliments/insults behind your back)