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Social Attraction
Attraction
Levels of analysis:
Attraction
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Social Attraction
Individual Differences:
Attachment style: For those with insecure attachment styles, positive feedback led
to greater attraction. Negative feedback had a stronger effect of females than males
Self-esteem: Dittes (1959) observed that those with low self-esteem were more
strongly effected by both positive and negative feedback
Those who need the ego boost?
Physical Attraction:
American males tend to be attracted to females who look cute, they have facial
characteristics associated with youth (Cunningham, 1986)
Striking? Actually, the more average/less distinctive you are the more attractive you
will be perceived to be
Contrasting theories:
People within and across different cultures tend to agree who is and is not
considered to be attractive
Reproductive fitness- symmetrical faces, women about to ovulate prefer the smell of
symmetrical men
The attractiveness of women, as measured by their waist to hip ratio (WHR). In
western societies, preference of males for women with smaller WHR. In foraging
societies, (where food is scarce), preference is for bigger WHR. In both cases the
preferences reflect signs of good health (Singh, 1993)
Attraction
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Social Attraction
Essays were submitted to teachers with a photo of the author attached, these
pictures either depicted an attractive or an unattractive female
A control condition was included with no photo, so as to attain a baseline measure
The essays were either of high or poor quality
Good essay: the pretty girls essay was seen as slightly better than control, but the
ugly girls essay was seen as much worse
Bad essay: the pretty girls essay was seen as much better than control, and the ugly
girls essay was seen as a lot worse
Self-Disclosure:
We tend to initially like people who disclose personal information to us and we tend
to disclose more to people whom we initially like
Similarity:
Attraction
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Social Attraction
Its the law of attraction, there's a linear relationship between attraction and
similarity of attitudes (Byrne, 1971)
Its more than just shared attitudes, it is about agreement between people. We like
consistency (cognitive dissonance theory) (Clore, 1976)
Note: If we find out someone were going out with likes the same obscure band as we
do, attraction increases
Effect of similarity is true across different cultures (Brewer 1968)
Proximity:
Attraction
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Social Attraction
Situational Factors:
Reciprocity:
Matching:
We are more likely to be attracted to those who are evenly matched with us in terms
of physical appearance, social background, personality, sociability, interests and
leisure activities (Sprecher, 1998)
Married couples tend to be similarly matched, and they become more similar over
time in terms of attitudes and mental abilities
Is playing hard to get a good idea?
Male students recruited, asked to phone prospective date. She was either delighted
to be asked, or reluctant to go, giving the impression she had lots of other options
It made no difference to how much the blokes liked the confederate, (uniformly high
ratings)
Attraction
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Social Attraction
Experiment 2
Prostitute either welcoming to all clients or gave the impression she was more
selective
Measured prostitutes estimation of how much they seemed to like her, how much
they paid her, and how soon they came back for another visit
Again, no difference
New hypothesis:
Maybe, its when the woman seems easy for the participant to get, but hard for
others to get
Computer dating study, biographies included. Manipulated how highly they rated the
participant and 5 other men
Results supported the new hypothesis
Attraction