Abstract
The objective of this exploratory research was to quantify the attributional responses of a number of demographic groups of college students with respect to their perception of diverse flirting situations. 93 undergraduates were classified along 7 demographic variables including marital status, sex, age, college class, grade-point average, ethnic origin, and religious affiliation. A 32-item questionnaire pertaining to interpersonal flirting was constructed to represent a wide range of situations. The questionnaire was administered to students in classroom situations. A Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance by ranks applied to individual items across different demographic groups offered support for certain widely held beliefs such as the findings that men show more interest in returning a flirtation, and married people are less likely to want to follow up a flirtation. Other results were quite unexpected, such as women and single people being less optimistic about the number of people they could “seduce” if they chose to try. Attributions are discussed in terms of intentions or behaviors.
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