Attitudes and their Influence on Physical Attraction

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When meeting a person for the first time, physical appearance is more or less all we have to go on. From there, we may form a mental picture of who that person is, what their wants, beliefs and aspirations are, without hearing them speak a single word. We fill in the blanks to get a good idea of who we’re dealing with, even if what we’ve filled in couldn’t be farther from the truth. One may be attracted to another based on physical appearance or they could be totally turned off. After the first impression and physical observation, however, what else influences the attraction of another? Research shows that there is more to attraction than what is seen on the physical surface, suggesting that it depends on a combination of physical proximity (Priest & Sawyer, 1967), attitude similarity (Insko, Thompson, Stroebe, Shaud, Pinner, & Layton, 1971), social status (Singh, Yeo, Lin, & Tan, 2007), and even narcism ( English & Reader, 1947). All of these factors are important, but the bulk of research zeros in on attitude similarity and its effects on attraction. The Implied evaluation and the similarity-attraction effect experiment carried out in 1971 set the stage for many socio-psychological studies to come (Insko, Thompson, Stroebe, Shaud, Pinner, & Layton, 1971, p. 297-308). Insko, Thompson, Stroebe, Shaud, Pinner, and Layton (1971) proposed that similarity, along with implied evaluation, largely influences attraction (p. 306-307). Accordingly, implied evaluation meaning the effect of positive, neutral, or negative information provided to the participants about the person they are judging. For example, noting that those being observed have a high IQ, low IQ, or no information whatsoever to see if this information affects how well... ... middle of paper ... ...milarity-attraction effect. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 25(3), 297-308. doi:10.1037/h0034224 Priest, R. F., & Sawyer, J. (1967). Proximity and peership: Bases of balance in interpersonal attraction. American Journal of Sociology, 633-649. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/ discover 10.2307/277582zuid=3739968&uid=2134&uid=2478320493&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=247 8320483&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21103387311397 English, H.B. and Reader, N.(1947). Personality factors in adolescent female friendships. J. consult. Psychol., 11, 212-220. doi: http://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/h0059646 Singh, R., Yeo, S., Lin, P. F., & Tan, L. (2007). Multiple mediators of the attitude similarity- attraction relationship: dominance of inferred attraction and subtlety of affect. Basic & Applied Social Psychology, 29(1), 61-74. doi:10.1080/01973530701331007

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