Attraction and Relationships

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Attraction and Relationships
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Thin slicing How first impressions matter

• Judging personality traits (Willis Todorov,
  2006)
• Ppts. saw pictures of faces at various durations
• Attractiveness, likeability, competence,
  trustworthiness, aggressiveness
• 1/10 of a second correlated with judgments
  without time limits
• Strongest results for trustworthiness
• In another study ppts predict winning and
  loosing political candidates from pictures

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Thin slicing How first impressions matter

• Teacher evaluations (Ambady Rosenthal, 1993)
• 10, 5, 2 sec. long videotape of profs teaching
• predicted student evaluations at the end of term

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Thin slicing How first impressions matter

• Do people agree on first impressions?
• Yes
• The 1 million chicken-egg question

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Lecture Outline

• 1) The Psychology of attraction
• Propinquity
• Similarity
• Physical attractiveness
• Mate preferences

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Propinquity

• Physical proximity encourages liking,
  friendships, and romance
• Police Academy study

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Fig. 3.2
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Propinquity

• Explanations of Propinquity Effects
• Availability encourages interactions
• Anticipating Interactions produces warm feelings
• The Mere Exposure Effect repeated exposure
  breeds familiarity, which encourages liking

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Fig. 3.3
Turkish words examples kadirga, afworbu, lokanta
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Mere Exposure Effect

• Does not need conscious reflectionsame effect
  with subliminal exposure
• One psychological factor as to why advertising
  works

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Similarity

• Similarity breeds attraction
• birds of a feather
• Engaged couples study
• Bogus Stranger studies
• What about opposites attract? Yes, few exceptions
• Sexual attraction
• A few personality traits (dominant/submissive,
  talkative/quiet, nurturing/needy

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Why Does Similarity Encourage Attraction?

• Social validation
• Smooth social interactions
• We Expect Similar Others to Like Us
• Similar Others Have Qualities We Like

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Physical Attractiveness Important feature of
first impressions

• Halo effect belief that attractive people
  possess other positive qualities
• Attractive people earn more
• Attractive defendants are less likely to be
  convicted, and receive lighter sentences
• Men more likely to come to aid of attractive
  females
• Essays attributed to attractive author evaluated
  more favorably
• Etc.

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Origins of Physical Attractiveness

• Is it arbitrary cultural convention or are there
  innate preferences?
• Cultural aspect 1 Thinness

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Origins of Physical Attractiveness

• Is it arbitrary cultural convention or are there
  innate preferences?
• Cultural aspect 1 Thinness
• Cultural aspect 2 Skin tone

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Origins of Physical Attractiveness

• Innate aspect
• Babies look longer at what adults consider to be
  attractive faces
• Video clip
• Cross cultural agreement on attractive faces

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Origins of Physical Attractiveness

• Innate architecture of physical attractiveness
• Bilateral symmetry (facial and bodily) is
  attractive
• Average faces are attractive (Langlois Roggman,
  1990)
• Healthy skin is attractive
• In general, features that were associated with
  reproductive health in the ancestral environment
  are considered attractive

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Mate Preferences (rank) by gender in 37 cultures

• Trait M F
• Mutual attraction 1 1
• Dependable character 2 2
• Maturity 3 3
• Good health 5 7
• Sociability 7 6
• Good looks 10 13

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Gender Differences in Mate Preferences

• There are reliable gender differences in mate
  preferences--drum rolls, please
• On average, men prefer physical attractiveness
  and youth more than women
• On average, women prefer status and older age
  more than men
• Warning the naturalistic fallacy

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Largest and Smallest gender differences

• Chastity Large cultural variation and unreliable
  or no gender differences
• Good financial prospects large gender
  differences and little cultural variation

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Gender Differences in Mate Preferences

• Parental investment theory
• Evolution has instilled in men and women desires
  that are advantageous to their reproductive
  success
• Biologically, women invest more in their
  offspring then men
• Women are the choosier gender in humans
• Women should prefer men with resources
• Men should prefer fertility (youthful appearance)

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Gender Differences in Mate Preferences

• Is the parental investment predictions anything
  more than common sense?
• cross-species comparisons (the Panamanian
  poison-arrow frog, hyenas, emperor penguins)
• Cross culturally universal
• but also large cultural variationoverall more
  cultural differences than gender differences
• Gender inequality correlated with the size of
  the gender difference in preference for status
  (Eagly and Wood)

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Gender Differences in Mate Preferences

• Is the parental investment predictions anything
  more than common sense?
• Ovulating women find masculine men more
  attractive
• but this is not exactly derived from parental
  investment theory

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Some Conclusions about Gender Differences in Mate
Preferences

• Systematic average gender differences predicted
  by parental investment theory
• Cultural context plays more important role than
  gender for all other traits
• Complex interaction of life history, culture, and
  gender-specific preferences
• Naturalistic fallacyevolutionary explanation is
  not moral justification!

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Lecture Outline

• 2) The Psychology of relationships
• Passionate and companionate love
• Marriage

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Passionate vs. companionate love (Berscheild
Walster)

• Passionate love
• Intense longing, ecstasy/despair
• Intense but brief
• Like a drug, a burning fire
• Companionate love
• Feelings of intimacy, care, connection
• Slow growing but long lasting
• Like vines growing and intertwining, binding
• The myth of eternal passion

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Love and Marriage across Cultures (Levine et al,
1995)

• If a man (woman) had all other qualities you
  desired, would you marry this person if you were
  not in love? ( AGREE)

Patna, Fresno, Birm, Kyoto HK India Calif UK JP
49 3.5 7.3 2.3 5.8
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Love and Marriage across Cultures (Levine et al,
1995)

• If love has completely disappeared from a
  marriage, OK for couple to make a clean break and
  start new lives? ( AGREE)

Patna, Fresno, Birm, Kyoto HK India Calif UK JP
46 35 45 41 47
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Two Loves, Two Errors
Danger points
Intensity
Passionate
Companionate
Time (6 months)
From Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis
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The Longer Term Picture
Companionate
Intensity
Passionate
Time (60 years)
From Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis