Love and Attraction

Question 1

How does proximity/familiarity influence attraction?

Answer 1

• The most powerful predictor of friendship is geographic nearness (proximity)
• Reasons are that people that have a nearer proximity are more available to meet and also that repeated exposure to a novel exposure increases our liking for them (mere exposure effect)
• Within certain levels familiarity breeds fondness

Question 2

How does physical attractiveness influence first impressions?

Answer 2

• After proximity creates contact, many experiments reveal that physical attractiveness affects the first impressions you form
• We perceive attractive people as happier, more sensitive, more successful and more socially skilled

Question 3

What factors make people seem physically attractive?

Answer 3

• Many perceptions of beauty are largely consistent across cultures e.g. men prefer hourglass physiques, babies stare longer at attractive faces and averaged faces are often judged more attractive
• One of the most critical factors in physical attractiveness is symmetry- it indicates that a person is developmentally stable (resilient and genetically most fit)

Question 4

Do we tend to like those who are similar or different?

Answer 4

• Friends and couples are far more likely to share common attitudes, beliefs and interests
• In real life, opposites attract and similarity breeds content
• Birds of a feather do tend to flock together

Question 5

Do we tend to like those who like us or who are hard to get?

Answer 5

• We tend to like those who like us, especially when our self-image is low
• The hard-to-get-effect: the tendency to prefer people who are highly selective in social choices over those who are more readily available

Question 6

What is the evolutionary perspective on mate selection?

Answer 6

• Men prefer attractive physical features suggesting youth and health – and therefore reproductive potential
• Women prefer men who are mature, dominant, and affluent – suggesting capacity to support and protect offspring
• There are many criticisms of this perspective

Question 7

What is passionate love?

Answer 7

An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present in the beginning of a love relationship

Question 8

What is compassionate love?

Answer 8

The deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined

Question 9

What are the key features to gratifying and enduring relationships?

Answer 9

• equity (both partners receive in proportion to what they give)
• self-disclosing intimacy