Interpersonal Attraction in a Role-Played Interaction

Abstract

To look at the usefulness of a neutral task in studying 2-person interactions, to ascertain some behavioral correlates of experimentally manipulated attraction, to investigate the generality of the similarity-attraction hypothesis, and to examine the behavioral relevance of scores on a commonly used paper-and-pencil attraction scale, Ss interacted with confederates posing as Ss. Each S was given the impression that C had similar or dissimilar attitudes and twice S performed an incomplete sentences task administered by C. On one set of trials, S was instructed to act as if he liked C, and on the other set as if he did not. Measured behaviors were eye contact, interview length, number of words used, smiles, and both S's and C's response latencies. In the high-attraction role-playing condition, more smiles and a higher percentage of eye contact occurred than in the low-attraction role-playing condition. But no differences in the other behaviors were noted, only very mild support was obtained for the similarity-attraction hypothesis, and none of the measures were related to scores on the paper-and-pencil index of interpersonal attraction.