Interpersonal Attraction
So far, we have seen how people form
impressions of one another and judge the causes of
their own and others’ behavior. But, when people
meet, what determines whether they will like each
other? Romantics believe that irresistible forces
propel them toward an inevitable meeting with their
beloved, but social psychologists take a more
hardheaded view of the matter. They have found that
attraction and the tendency to like someone else are
closely linked to such factors as proximity, physical
attraction, similarity, exchange and intimacy.
PROXIMITY
Proximity is usually the most important factor in
determining attraction. The closer two people live to
each other, the more likely they are to interact; the
more frequent their interaction, the more they will
tend to like each other. Conversely, two people
separated by considerable geographic distance are not
likely to run into each other, and thus have little
chance to develop a mutual attraction.
PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS
Physical attractiveness can powerfully influence
the conclusions that we reach about a person’s
character. We generally give attractive people credit
for more than their beauty. We presume them to be
more intelligent, interesting, happy, kind, sensitive,
moral and successful than people who are not
perceived as attractive. They are also thought to make
better spouses and to be more sexually responsive.
SIMILARITY
Similarity of attitudes, interests, values,
backgrounds and beliefs underlies much interpersonal
attractiveness. When we know that someone shares
our attitudes and interests, we tend to have more
positive feelings toward that person. For example,
voters, are more attracted to and are more likely to
vote for a candidate with whom they share similar
attitudes. In addition, the higher proportion of
attitudes that two people share, the stronger the
attraction between them.
EXCHANGE
According to the reward theory of attraction, we
tend to like people who make us feel rewarded and
appreciated. But the relationship between attraction
and rewardingness is subtle and complex. For
example, Aronson’s gain-loss theory of attraction
suggests that increases in rewarding behavior
influence attractiveness more than constant rewarding
behavior does. The reward theory of attraction is
based on the concept of exchange. In social
interactions, two people exchange various goods and
resources with each other. For example, you may
agree to help a friend paint his apartment in exchange
for his preparing dinner for you. Every exchange
involves both rewards and costs. As long as both
parties find their interactions more rewarding than
costly, and as long as what one person “gets out of it”
is roughly equal to what the other gets, their
exchanges are likely to continue.
INTIMACY
When does liking someone become something
more? Intimacy is the quality of genuine closeness
and trust in another person. People become closer and
stay closer through a continuing reciprocal pattern of
each person trying to know the other and allowing the
other to know him or her. When you are first getting
to know someone, you are likely to communicate
about “safe,” superficial topics such as the weather,
sports or shared activities. As you get to know each
other better over time, your conversation progresses
to more personal subjects: your personal experiences,
memories, hopes, fears, goals and failures. Because
self-disclosure is only possible when you trust the
listener, you will seek-and usually receive- a
reciprocal disclosure to keep the conversation
balanced.