Psychology 2070A/B Chapter 9: Textbook Chapter 9
20 Nov 2016
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Chapter 9 – Interpersonal Attraction
A. Major Antecedents of Attraction
• People are happier if they have a positive, warm relationship.
a. The Person Next Door: The Propinquity Effect
• Propinquity Effect: The finding that the more we see and interact with people, the more likely they are
to become our friends. (E.g. People on your street)
o Regardless of the type of interaction
o Because one of the simplest determinants of interpersonal attraction → Proximity.
o Reasons behind Propinquity Effect:
▪ Mere Exposure Effect: The finding that the more exposure we have to a stimulus, the more
apt we are to like it, unless our feeling to that person is -ve.
▪ Research – Richard Moreland and Scott Beach @ 1922
• Having female confederates in a large university classroom w/o interacting with the
professors or students.
• She will attend classes ranging form 15 meetings to none.
• Findings: Students are more likely to like the female confederate if the confederate
attends more classes, even though there is no interaction involved.
• Research – Leon Festinger, Stanley Schacter, Kurt Back @ MIT @ 1950
o Asking students who do not know each other move in 2 apartment buildings, and ask them to
name 3 closest friends in this residential area.
o Findings:
▪ 65% named someone who lived in the same building.
▪ 4% named someone that’s next-door neighbor
▪ % named someone that’s -doors apart
▪ 10% named someone living at the opposite ends of the hall
▪ People who are living right next to the stairs or mailbox are more likely to form relationships
with people who don’t live on the same floor with them.
o Conclusion: Attraction & propinquity rely not only on actual physical distance but also on the
functional distance.
▪ Functional Distance: Certain Aspects of architectural design that make it likely that some
people will come into contact w/ each other more often than others.
i. Forming Relationships Online
• Participants are
o More comfortable revealing their true self to a partner over the )nternet compared with a face-
to-face interaction.
o Tend to report more liking for an Internet partner than a partner they met in person.
• Which type of people are more likely to form friendships online?
o Rich get richer hypothesis: People who are extroverted w/ good social skills use the Internet as
another way of acquiring even more friends.
o Social Compensation Hypothesis: Introvert people are more likely to form relationship via the
Internet as they lack the skills to do it in person.
▪ Supported by research conducted with high school, male students in Ontario
• Particularly important for relationship formed online to move to offline modes of communication.
• People disclose more personal information more quickly when interacting with a potential dating
partner online, but end as quick as it was formed.
o Reason: Disillusionment – The person you meet doesn’t live up to the image presented online
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b. Similarity
• Similarity: Attraction to people who are like us. (E.g. interest, background, attitudes, values)
o Opposite to Complementarity
▪ Complementarity: Attraction to people who are opposite to us. (No research support)
o Can be other way round: True for romantic relationships, Same-sex or opposite-sex friendships
▪ Similarity → Attraction;
▪ Attraction → Similarity perceived → Understood → Relationship Satisfaction
▪ Similarity perceived is more important than actual similarity
o Strongest in individualistic cultures
o Reasons behind:
▪ We tend to think that people who are similar to us will be inclined to like us.
• More willing to initiate on forming relationship with that person
▪ People who are similar provide us with the feeling that we are right in our view and our
thinking (i.e. Social validation for our characteristics and beliefs)
▪ Rewards-of-interaction explanation: If a person feels the same way we do on important
issues, we assume it would be enjoyable to spend time w/ him or her.
• People are attracted to people who are similar to us in terms of
(Both friendship ad romantic relationship)
o Their opinions W/o meeting that person before
o Attitudes, values, and demographic background W/ meeting that person before
o Personality When the friendship is mutual
o Interpersonal Style
o Communication Style
o Leisure Activity Preferences Strongest predictor
c. Reciprocal Liking
• Reciprocal Liking: When we like someone and that person also likes you. (w/o the need of similarity)
o Example: By showing interest to a male participant (i.e. keep eye contact and leaning toward
him), the men expressed great liking for her despite the fact that he knew she disagreed with him
on important issues.
o Reasons: Self-fulfilling prophecy
o Occur only if you like yourself in 1st place.
▪ People w/ -ve self-image are less likely to believe that person really like him
• Research – Rebecca Curtis and Kim Miller @ 1986
o Making participants to be in one of 2 groups, and put them in pairs for conversation
▪ Like Group → The other participants like me
▪ Dislike Group → The other participants dislike me
o Findings:
▪ Participants who believe they were liked behaved in more likeable ways, causing the other
participant more likely to like him.
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d. The Effects of Physical Attractiveness on Liking (Not limited to heterosexual relationships)
• Research #1 – Walster Hatfield and her colleagues @ U of Minnesota
o Ask participants to do a battery of personality and aptitude tests during orientation week
o Pair the students at random, and go on a blind date at a dance for few hours.
o Findings: Physical attractiveness could override all kind of factors w/ no differences between sex.
• Research #2 – @ Laurentian University
o Ask female students to rate the photographs with information as below:
▪ Either an attractive or unattractive man Most Important variable
▪ Participants in sports or not
▪ High status or not
o Findings:
▪ Female students are most interested in dating and forming long-term relationship with men
who were portrayed as attractive, participated in sports and were high status.
• Occurs at both conscious and unconscious level
o Automatic thinking: Women only based the attractiveness of the men to make their
1st impression. The information provided is only used for support their decision.
o Conscious thinking: When the decision needs to be processed more carefully, the
men’s qualities and look are equally important
▪ People tend to realize the emphasis they put on attractiveness; however, they won’t admit it
until they have to. Research done by using lie detector
i. What is Attractive?
• Research – Michael Cunningham @ 1986
o Asked Male university students to rate the attractiveness of 50 photographs of women, taken
from college yearbook and from an international beauty pageant program, and observe the result.
o Findings:
▪ Both men and women prefer large eyes, prominent cheekbones, and big smile
• Large eyes: Baby Face features
o Elicit feelings of warmth and nurturance in perceivers.
o Especially important on a female
• Prominent Cheekbones: Adult features
o Could only be found in the faces of those who are sexually mature.
• Big Smile: Especially important for women’s faces.
▪ Men prefer women w/ small nose, small chin and small feet
▪ Women prefer men w/ larger chin, larger feet
• Research – McMaster U and U of Stirling, Scotland
o Perception of facial attractiveness depends on the perceivers’ height.
▪ Tall people prefer a face with larger forehead and smaller chin. Opposed short ppl
• Leg-to-Body Ratios:
o Average leg-to-body ratios were considered more attractive than extreme!
o Especially emphasize long legs in Canada, Europe, and Africa (vs. Asia and Latin American)
• 2D:4D Ratio = Length of Index finger : Length of Ring Finger
o <1: The male is more physically attractive (Both self reported and as rated by women)
▪ Associated w/ masculinity → Male Hormones
▪ More attracted to women → markers of reproductive fitness (E.g. Sperm Quality)
▪
ii. Cultural Standards of Beauty
• People form wide ranges of cultures agree on what is attractive in the human face, regardless of
cultural background. → Correlations between participants = 0.66~0.93
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