Attribution of personal characteristics as a function of the degree of touch on initial contact and sex

The current study was designed to measure the effects of degree of touch on initial contact on interpersonal judgment. Subjects (60 male and 60 female) reporting for an experiment on interpersonal judgment were met by the experimenter and another subject. The second subject was in fact a confederate. As the subjects were introduced, the confederate responded in one of three ways: a nod of the head (no touch); a firm handshake; or a firm handshake accompanied by a squeeze on the subject's right upper arm by the confederate's left hand. Half of the subjects met a male and half met a female confederate. Subjects were then placed in separate cubicles and asked to complete the Byrne interpersonal judgment questionnaire about the person they had just briefly met. This scale has six items (intelligence, knowledge of current events, morality, personal feelings, participation in experiments, and adjustment) for same-sex pairs and four additional items for opposite-sex pairs (dating, marriage, physical and sexual attraction). The results indicated that the variations in the type of initial contact between subject and confederate resulted in several significantly different interpersonal judgments. Of particular interest was the finding that a male confederate greeting a female subject was viewed as a more acceptable marriage partner the more touch was invoved in the initial contact. A female confederate greeting a male subject was viewed as a less acceptable marriage partner the more touch that was involved. The degree of touch also affected judgments of knowledge of current events, adjustment, dating, and physical attraction. Typically, the more touch, the higher the rating for the male confederate, whereas the female confederate was typically rated highest on the nod or handshake plus the additional touch to the arm, and least when she simply shook hands. The relevance of these findings to first impressions and role stereotyping are discussed.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Western Psychological Convention, Sacramento, 1975.This study was supported in part by a faculty research grant from the University of San Francisco.     

THE ROLE OF INITIAL CONVERSATIONS IN DETERMINING ATTRACTION TO SIMILAR AND DISSIMILAR STRANGERS

The present study focused on identifying the independent and conjoint influence of attitude similarity and initial interaction on interpersonal attraction to relative strangers. Participants were informed they would be working on a project with either an attitudinally similar or an attitudinally dissimilar stranger. Half of the participants next engaged in an initial interaction with their partner and the other half did not. All participants then filled out a scale that included a measure of interpersonal attraction. Results indicated that the conjoint, nonadditive effects of attitude similarity and initial interaction overrode the significant main effects of these variables. Although attitudinally similar noninteractants were more attracted to their partners than dissimilar noninteractants, no differences in attraction were observed among similar and dissimilar interactants. Dissimilar interactants were more attracted to their partners than dissimilar noninteractants, but no differences in attraction were observed between similar interactanls and noninteractants.     

Treatment preference and acceptability: Epistemology and locus of control

Abstract

Treatment preference and acceptability were investigated in 397 female university students. Three audiovisual vignettes depicting a client and therapist discussing a body image disturbance problem were presented to subjects. Predictions were that subjects would prefer one of three therapy approaches—behavioral, cognitive—rational, or cognitive—constructivist—as a function of personal epistemology and locus of control. Overall, subjects rated the constructivist therapy approach more favorably than either the cognitive—rational or behavioral approach. Similarly, subjects evaluated the constructivist therapist more positively than either the rational or behavioral therapist. After degree of subject identification with the target problem was controlled, results indicated that matching subjects who had an external locus of control orientation to a behavioral or cognitive-rational therapist resulted in more favorable assessments of that therapist. Matching subjects who had an internal locus of control orientation to a constructivist therapist resulted in more positive assessments of that therapist. Implications for matching in clinical practice are discussed.     

Personality and the location of identity1

It was hypothesized that individuals vary in their general environmental orientation: some are oriented to the internal and some to the external environment. We next predicted that this difference would be reflected in the location of those characteristics by which such persons define their identity. A sample of 150 persons judged the location of a set of 22 identity characteristics. These characteristics were rated on importance for self and then correlated with personality tests assumed to assess individual differences in environmental orientation. Authoritarianism, Snyder's self–monitoring, and Rotter's external locus of control were taken as measures of an external environmental orientation; Laird's locus of causal attribution and Sampson's measure of internal orientation (IO) were taken as measures of an internal environmental orientation. With all scales but Rotter's, strong support for the predictions was found: i.e., authoritarianism and self–monitoring were positively correlated with externally located identity characteristics; a dispositional attributional bias and the IO were positively correlated with internally located identity characteristics. These findings were discussed in terms of a process of identity mastery.     

The usefulness of distinguishing between a defensive and a nondefensive external locus of control

The study's purpose was to determine whether a distinction can be made between individuals adopting an external locus of control as a defense and those adopting the orientation because it reflects their life experience. It was hypothesized that the two groups differ in the amount of personal responsibility they accept for task outcomes. Internals and externals were identified and then further designated as high or low in action taking. Among externals, a high action-taking score implied defensiveness. Subjects randomly received either success or failure feedback on a presumed task of interpersonal sensitivity. Defensive externals varied their causal attributions as a function of outcome, whereas nondefensive externals did not (p < .05). The distinction between defensive and nondefensive external control was thus supported.     

Interpersonal and intrapersonal justice: The effect of subject and confederate outcomes on evaluations of fairness

Subjects were asked to make justice judgments based on different comparison standards—intrapersonal and interpersonal standards. The intrapersonal standard of entitlement was induced through a promise. Subjects were either given more than ($4.00), less than ($1.00), or exactly ($2.50) the reward promised for completion of an assigned task. By providing subjects access to information pertaining to a confederate co-worker's outcomes, subjects were able to evaluate the equitableness (an interpersonal standard) of the distribution. Confederates also received one of three levels of reward (i.e. $1.00, $2.50, or $4.00). It was found that evaluations of fairness depend on the criteria used in making the assessment; if intrapersonal comparisons are employed, subjects produce justice judgments quite different from those grounded on an interpersonal referent. A main effect for subject outcome was obtained when the prevailing standard was intrapersonal and an interaction between subject and confederate outcomes was found when the prevailing standard was interpersonal. One implication of these results is that it is possible for an equitable distribution to still be considered unjust.     

Interpersonal congruency,attitude similarity,and interpersonal attraction

To examine relationships among interpersonal congruency, attitude similarity, and interpersonal attraction, the present study required pairs of subject to rate their attraction to each other in response to two proportions of similar attitudes orthogonally varied with two treatments of interpersonal congruency. Findings showed that attitude similarity determined attraction when congruency was uncontrolled, but that similarity and attraction were unrelated within the two congruency treatments. Additional correlational analyses suggest that different judgments of the accuracy of other's perceptions of oneself accompany previous findings on attitude similarity and attraction, and it is proposed that interpersonal attraction may be understood in terms of stabilizing processes postulated by the theory of interpersonal congruency.     

Acceptance of External Versus Internal Excuses by an Externally or Internally Oriented Audience

Men and women evaluated a male student who was caught by his professor cheating on a make-up test. The student either gave an external excuse, gave an internal excuse, or accepted responsibility for his action. The prediction that an internal excuse would be favored by participants with an internal locus of control and that an external excuse would be favored by participants with an external locus of control was not supported. It appeared that, because the student was caught in the act of cheating, the use of an excuse as an accounting strategy was not appropriate. The student was evaluated more favorably when he accepted responsibility than when he offered an excuse for his cheating. Harsher punishment was recommended by participants with an internal locus of control. Results were integrated with research studies testing the effectiveness of excuses in moderating the punishment recommended for people who are guilty of an antisocial or illegal act.     

Sexual Attitudes of Males and Females as Predictors of Interpersonal Attraction and Marital Compatibility1

Two investigations examine the effect of similarity of sexual attitudes on (a) attraction to a stranger and (b) marital sexual satisfaction. In an experiment using undergraduates, manipulation of subject-stranger similarity in general affective orientation to sexuality affected attraction and other evaluative dependent variables. In the second investigation, married couples revealed sexual attitudes and sexual satisfaction. Husbands and wives were similar (r= 0.58, p < 0.001) in their affective orientations to sexuality. Discrepancy between the partners’ scores predicted sexual dissatisfaction in both partners. In addition, the wife's affective orientation to sexuality predicted more indices of sexual satisfaction and adjustment in both the wife and the husband than did the husband's affective orientation to sexuality. Finally, spouses with a positive affective orientation to sexuality were more accurate when judging their partner's sexual enjoyment, compared to spouses with a negative orientation. The findings have implications for the effects of similarity of attitudes on interpersonal attraction and on relationship quality.     

The "drinking-buddy" scale as a measure of para-social behavior

Para-social behavior is a form of quasi-interpersonal behavior that results when audience members develop bonds with media personalities that can resemble interpersonal social interaction, but is not usually applied to political communication. This study tested whether the "Drinking-Buddy" Scale, a simple question frequently used in political communication, could be interpreted as a single-item measure of para-social behavior with respect to political candidates in terms of image judgments related to interpersonal attraction and perceived similarity to self. The participants were college students who had voted in the 2008 election. They rated the candidates, Obama or McCain, as drinking buddies and then rated the candidates' perceived similarity to themselves in attitude and background, and also the social and task attraction to the candidate. If the drinking-buddy rating serves as a proxy measure for para-social behavior, then it was expected that participants' ratings for all four kinds of similarity to and attraction toward a candidate would be higher for the candidate they chose as a drinking buddy. The directional hypotheses were supported for interpersonal attraction, but not for perceived similarity. These results indicate that the drinking-buddy scale predicts ratings of interpersonal attraction, while voters may view perceived similarity as an important but not essential factor in their candidate preference.     

Disagreements and self-esteem: Support for the competence-reinforcement model of attraction

The competence-reinforcement model of attraction (Byrne & Clore, 1967) theorizes that interpersonal disagreements produce negative affect and decrements in personal competence. Subject dislike for disagreeing strangers has been a frequent and reliable finding, but the theoretical issue of whether disagreements elicit negative affect because they threaten one's sense of personal competence has been less thoroughly investigated. The present study examines the relationship between attitude disagreements and self-esteem. On the basis of the competence-reinforcement model of attraction it was hypothesized that disagreements would produce decrements in selfesteem, and that the decrements would be most pronounced among subjects expressing the greatest dislike for the disagreeing stranger. Both hypotheses were supported, and it was concluded that the competence-reinforcement model provides an adequate account of both attraction and self-esteem loss.     

Attraction to a dissimilar stranger as a function of level of effectance arousal

An experiment was carried out to demonstrate that the relationship between attitudes of a stranger and attraction to that stranger can be mediated by effectance arousal and the consequent information search to reduce the arousal. The argument posited was that individuals under high effectance arousal produced by a confusing and ambiguous film would be attracted to dissimilar others as a source of information and uncertainty reduction. Results indicated that high levels of arousal produced greater attraction to a dissimilar stranger than to a similar stranger. This finding was reversed when an explanation was provided along with the confusing film, lending support to the uncertainty reduction position.     

COGNITIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL INFLUENCES ON SPONTANEOUS COMFORTING BEHAVIOR

Most previous research concerned with comforting communication skills has studied comforting by having subjects respond to hypothetical situations. A major goal of the present study was to examine the relation of several cognitive and motivational variables to the comforting behaviors displayed by persons in a “real world” situation. Subjects (73 female college students) interacted with a female confederate who appeared to be emotionally distressed about having been left by her boyfriend. These interactions were covertly videotaped and content analyzed. Measures of interpersonal construct differentiation, emotional empathy, communication apprehension, and locus of control orientation were also obtained. As expected, interpersonal construct differentiation was positively related to qualitative features of the comforting behaviors exhibited by subjects. Also as expected, highly apprehensive subjects tended to avoid interacting with the distressed confederate and engaged in relatively little comforting behavior. Emotional empathy and locus of control orientation were unrelated to the comforting behaviors of subjects. These results are discussed in terms of a general model of comforting behavior.     

Maternal depression and locus of control orientation as predictors of dyadic play behavior

Maternal locus of control orientation and depression were examined in relation to joint negotiation and coordination of mother-child play at 20 months. Subjects were 51 high-social-risk mothers and children. Mothers completed the I-E Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory prenatally and at 20 months; mother-child interaction was videotaped in a laboratory playroom at 20 months. Tapes were coded using the Control-Autonomy Balance Scales to evaluate maternal control and sensitivity and child engagement and autonomy. Analyses of dyadic play behavior indicated that maternal controllingness was related to an external locus of control orientation. Child engagement during play was related to the resolution of mild maternal depression.     

Prototypical similarity,self-categorization,and depersonalized attraction: A perspective on group cohesiveness

In contrast to traditional approaches that widely equate group cohesiveness with interpersonal attraction, self-categorization theoryargues that self-categorization depersonalizes perception in terms of the group prototype, and transforms the basis of interindividual attitude (liking) from idiosyncracy into prototypicality. An implication is that while attraction in interpersonal relationships relates to overall similarity, attraction among group members is based on prototypical similarity. To test this idea, subjects (N = 219) participated in an experiment in which they reported their attitude towards an individual who would be their partner, or a fellow group member (of either group ‘Visual’ or group ‘Tactile’) for a subsequent task. Subject-target similarity varied on each of two dimensions: dimension ‘A’ was more prototypical of group ‘Visual’, and dimension ‘F’ of group ‘Tactile’. The independent variables of social orientation (interpersonal, group ‘Visual’, group ‘Tactile’), similarity on dimension A (A ±), and dimension F(F±) were manipulated in a 3 × 2 × 2 design. The three hypotheses tested in this experiment were generally supported. Subjects preferred prototypically similar group members to interpersonal partners, and downgraded prototypically dissisimilar group members (HI). Identification was positively related to target evaluation (H2), more strongly for prototypically similar than dissimilar targets (H3), and the identification-attraction relationship was mediated by perceived prototypical similarity. Group-based effects were independent of perceptions of overall similarity.     

Effects of Victim Gender and Sexuality on Attributions of Blame to Rape Victims

Previous research suggests that homosexual male rape victims receive more blame than heterosexual victims. In this study, we examined effects of victim gender and sexuality on judgments of victims of stranger rape by a male perpetrator. Participants read a rape vignette in which victim gender and sexuality varied, and then rated the amount of blame they attributed to the perpetrator and victim. Victims were attributed more blame if their sexual orientation suggested potential attraction to the perpetrator: gay men and heterosexual women received more blame than did lesbians and heterosexual men. Further, homophobic attitudes toward gay male victims increased the blame attributed to them: perpetrators of rape of gay men were seen as least responsible for their actions, and the character of gay male victims was seen to be a stronger contributory factor than it was for other victims.     

Locus of control and the ability to tolerate gratification delay: When it is better to be an external

An experiment was conducted to investigate the relationship between the locus of control orientation of fourth-grade children and delay frustration experienced in self-imposed and externally imposed delay situations. Time estimation was used as the index of delay frustration, with greater time estimates being interpreted as indicating greater frustration. In a self-imposed delay situation, external subjects estimated a 5-min delay to be longer than did internal subjects, while in an externally imposed delay situation, internal subjects estimated a 5-min delay to be longer than did external subjects. The implications of the findings for an understanding of both the locus of control dimension and delay behavior are discussed.     

The Situational Facilitation of Interpersonal Attraction: A Three-factor Hypothesis1

A theoretical analysis of observations of natural and man-made disasters, festive social events, and task-oriented crash programs led to a three-factor hypothesis of attraction facilitation. It was proposed that interpersonal attraction toward strangers is facilitated when there is emotional arousal, sharing, and out-of-role behavior. In a laboratory investigation (N= 120), postexperimental attraction toward a dissimilar stranger increased when all three factors were present but not when only two of the three factors were present (p < .01). Consistent with the reinforcement-affect model of attraction, increased attraction toward the stranger in the three-factor conditions was paralleled by more positive feelings about the experiment in the three-factor than in the two-factor conditions. Knowledge of the variables underlying facilitation effects could be utilized on a societal basis to create attraction-enhancing occurrences.     

Interpersonal attraction as a function of affective state and affective change

Interpersonal attraction has been found to be highly correlated with the affective states of subjects. It was hypothesized that attraction is also highly related to affective changes induced in subjects by interpersonal stimuli associated with a stranger. Byrne and Rhamey's (1965) experiment was replicated with one change: subjects' affective states were assessed at the beginning of the session and immediately prior to the subjects' evaluation of a stranger. Four levels of attitude similarity (1.00, .67, .33, and .00) and three types of evaluation conditions (positive, negative,and control) were employed in a 4 × 3 factorial design, with 19 subjects per cell. As hypothesized, attraction was found to be highly related to subjects' affective states and affective changes induced by attraction stimuli (p < .001).