Attraction - What Attracts Us to Others?

Proximity: Geographical nearness & functional distance predict liking

• Propinquity Effect: The more we see someone, the more we like the person (Festinger, Schachter & Back 1950)
• Functional Distance: All aspects that increase likelihood of contact with a person (e.g. people live next to the stairs/mailboxes are liked more)

Why?

• Availability
• Mere Exposure Effect: Repeated exposure to a novel stimulus increase liking (novel: a person that you’ve never met, have no existing attitudes for)
  • Over Exposure: Decrease liking
• Anticipation of Interaction: Liking a person because we anticipate that we will be interacting with them a lot
• Anticipatory Liking: Expecting someone will be pleasant and compatible

Similarity: We like people who are perceived as similar to us

• Opinions, values, attitudes and preferences, personality, interests, experiences, appearance
• Perceived Similarity - Tendency to overestimate similarity

Why?

• Similar people more likely to like us (avoid potential rejection)
• Validation of our characteristics and beliefs (increase self-esteem)
• Enjoyable to spend time with (shared interest)
• Dissimilarity can increase disliking - attitude alignment (consistency between mental elements) (e.g. experience dissonance when one dislikes a movie you like, resolve by disliking the person)
  • False consensus bias: We often overestimate # of people who share our negative attributes Dissonance occur when the person doesn’t share our negative attribute.

Complementarity: “Opposites attract” only likely for complementary traits, not opposite traits

• E.g. Dominance vs. submission, nurturance vs. dependence, social status

Reciprocal Liking: We like those who likes us back